This A.I. is model of inefficiency

The teams interested in securing Allen Iverson are functioning in the darkness of desperation.

Otherwise, the facts against Iverson are basic enough, and none of it has a thing to do with his tattoos, hip-hop image and occasional communication issues with coaches and management.

So let’s drop that tired notion. It is so last century, when a tattoo actually was considered edgy. Now a tattoo is almost a rite of passage in professional sports.

If an athlete can help an organization win games, it has been shown repeatedly that an organization will tolerate almost anything, and a tattoo is the least of it.

Organizations are proficient in explaining away the criminal actions of their athletes. What then is so hard about embracing an athlete who is covered in tattoos and wears pants that droop to his ankles?

Here is the problem with Iverson: He is just not an efficient player. It is that simple.

He is averaging nearly 24.4 shots a game this season, which is fairly standard for him.

And it is not merely that he shoots the ball a lot and lacks the shooting percentage to support it. He kills the rhythm and flow of a team’s offense with his dribble-happy bent.

A typical offensive set of the 76ers’ involved Iverson dribbling away the 24-second shot clock, while his teammates waited around for two outcomes: a shot by him or a pass after he broke down the defense.

This style of play hardly maximizes the abilities of his teammates, however limited those abilities may be.

Iverson never has been able to expand and polish his game through experience. He is, in many ways, the same player he was in his first few seasons in the NBA.

He is a soloist in a team sport, a contradiction that he never has been able to resolve.

And it is doubtful he ever will make peace with it, considering he is 31 years old.

Worse, his compensation package is way out of proportion to his real value.

Iverson is carrying a franchise-killing contract: $17.2 million this season, followed by $19.1 million next season and $21.1 million the season after that.

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