Basketball icon Allen Iverson was honored last week by the NBA team that made him a household name.
Yet, despite the grandeur of the tribute, some feel it falls short, dismissing the diminutive sculpture crafted in the Philadelphia legend’s honor, saying it’s not big enough. People seemed to not care about what it looked like but how small it was compared to the Rocky statue.
The city was all abuzz for weeks with people arguing over what Iverson pose should be immortalized, but when it was unveiled on Friday, April 12, the conversation online shifted as quickly as the seven-time All-Star broke Michael Jordan’s ankle with his signature crossover.
Amid the criticism, Iverson is thrilled about the honor.
“I’ve accomplished a lot of things in my career, but this is the cream of the crop,” Iverson said during ceremony, according to CBS News. “It don’t get too much better than this. It don’t even seem real.”
Social media users professed their outrage that the bronze monument was tiny compared to the 1980 statue of Rocky Balboa, a fictional native son of Italian descent.
Located at the entrance to the Philadelphia Museum of Art off of Kelly Drive and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the bronze sculpture stands at 8 feet 6. The piece of art was donated to the city by Sylvester Stallone, the actor who played Rocky in seven self-titled films and two “Creed” movies, according to the Association of Public Art.
“I need this to be supersized AI is a true legend,” one person wrote, while another stated, “They always playing in black people’s face, this man is a legend and deserves a legend size statue.”
“Sixers out to be ashamed of themselves with that small statue. Iverson deserves a bigger one. They need to redo it,” one comment read on The Neighborhood Talk’s Instagram page. “He gave so much to that team and to the game for that uncivil statue!!!!!!! Extreme disrespect!”
“What is this??? A statue for ants?” one person tweeted.
“@sixers I think I speak for the entire fanbase when I say we need a rocky sized statue of Allen Iverson right in front of Wells Fargo,” one X user wrote.
@sixers I think I speak for the entire fanbase when I say we need a rocky sized statue of Allen Iverson right in front of Wells Fargo
— D1 Ręłł 🇯🇲 (@pure_rell) April 13, 2024
Fans might not have realized that Iverson’s sculpture is part of the Legends Walk, standing in front of the team’s training complex across the bridge in Camden, New Jersey. He joins nine other basketball legends who once played for the Philadelphia 76ers, marking the 10th inductee.
His statue, featuring his iconic crossover, will stand alongside those of Charles Barkley, Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Maurice Cheeks, Moses Malone, Billy Cunningham, Hal Greer, Bobby Jones, and Dolph Schayes, all of which are all the same size. Enlarging his statue would be out of scale for the celebrity walk. All of those statues are approximately 6 feet high, almost three feet shorter than the Rocky piece of art.
Allen Iverson joins Sixers royalty with his own statue at the 76ers' practice facility! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/xPRtGkFLEw
— NBA (@NBA) April 12, 2024
Iverson’s sculpture unveiling came on the 10th anniversary of the retirement of his jersey number, No. 3. The former Georgetown University star was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1997 and the league MVP in 2001.
