But 76ers senior vice president Dave Coskey was furious at a Chicago Sun-Times report Sunday that said a photo of the 76ers' star in Hangtimes, the team's magazine, might have been altered to eliminate the presence of tattoos.

The photo in question, Coskey said, was taken early in Iverson's career, before he had any tattoos. Coskey also said other photos in Hangtimes showed Iverson with tattoos.

The Hoop photo was altered to eliminate Iverson's diamond earrings, necklace, undershirt and his new neck tattoo.

"[The photo] was an insult, terrible," Iverson said. "I wish they wouldn't use me at all if they can't accept all of me. I have things on my body that are just tattoos to others but mean a lot to me, about my mother, my grandmother, my kids, my fiancee. These aren't just tattoos to me."

Brian McIntyre, the league's senior vice president of sports communications, called the whole thing a huge mistake.

"An overexuberant person in our organization made a decision," McIntyre said. "It happened once, it won't happen again. It was an error in judgment. Our philosophy is to show people as they are.

"It's unfortunate, but it happened. No one needs to make any apologies for Allen Iverson."

During the regular season, the Washington Wizards used a photo of Iverson on the cover of their magazine that had been altered.

Coskey said the Sixers "have tried over the last four years to have a balanced marketing program and have tried to market everybody, but Allen has been at the forefront of everything we've done."

"We've gone from 28th in the league in attendance to eighth and take great pride in him," Coskey said. "It would never enter our minds to alter his appearance. "I explained all of this [to the Sun-Times], but for whatever reason, my explanation did not appear. What they wrote was extremely unfair to the Sixers, worse, it was a slanted view. With Pat Croce, who has tattoos himself, how could we ever consider airbrushing out tattoos on our players?"

"We would never do anything like that," Croce said of the Hoop alterations. "I think it's cool what Allen wears. If he wants to be different, that's fine with me. Michael Jordan shaved his head, Allen gets tattoos and wears his hair in cornrows. Why follow the pack? I believe you should be yourself. That's what Allen is doing, and I have no problem with that."