After a past filled with controversy, Allen Iverson is looking forward to a future filled with more jewelry. the 76ers point guard wore plenty of gold when he accepted the NBA Rookie of the Year award last week, but despite the millions he makes, he can't buy the silverware he wants. "Number one is the championship ring," Iverson said, "Because that's what separates the men from the boys." Several years ago, he flourished as a player at Georgetown under coach John Thompson.

"He tought me the game" Iverson said. "I thought I knew, but coach Thompson thought me everything I needed to get where I am."

He was the first overall pick in last year's draft, and while the sixers went 22-60, he showed he belonged in the NBA.

DRIVING

Equally adept at hitting the outside shot or quickly driving past defenders to score inside, Iverson shook off all who tried to guard him.

"He'll step back at you or go to the hole and dunk on you," Cleveland's Donny Marshall said. "He's the most explosive 6-foot guard you've ever seen. Ever."

But controversy continued to follow Iverson in the pros. His crossover dribble prompted the League to issue a new guidelines on traveling. The league told him his shorts were to big and his ankle brace covered too much of his sock.

He was taken to task for hanging around with a party of three close friends, a «posse« that, at one point in the season, got into a fight with teammate Jerry Stackhouse's family.

Iverson dismissed talk that he and Stackhouse don't get along. "I love Jerry," he said. "Jerry and I are close friends, very close friends."

Iverson also angered a few of the NBA's biggest stars, who felt he didn't respect them enough. Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and Dennis Rodman took shots at him.

"I haven't been doing anything terrible on the basketball court," he said. "I've seen people do far worse thing than I've ever imagined doing, and they make those guys look like angels."

But he did have one regret from the season: taking the uncontested shot late in a blowout loss to washington that gave him at least 40 points in five straight games, an NBA rookie record.

"I wished I never took that shot," he said. "I wish the streak had ended right there."