KNOTT: The Answer is facing a questionable future

Allen Iverson is reluctant to be the Answer, given the way the NBA is posing the question.

That would mean accepting a bargain-basement salary and a significantly reduced role.

That does not fit well with Iverson’s vision of himself.

That vision, of course, is compromised by Iverson’s strong sense of entitlement and the blinders he still wears at 34 years old.

He never has played well with others or heeded the advice of those patrolling sidelines.

He plays fearlessly. That always has been his principal line of defense, and not an accurate one on the defensive end of the floor unless you count defending the passing lanes.

The Pistons sent Iverson home last spring. That is how the experiment ended there, with hurt feelings on both sides and one massively bruised ego.

That is how it always was destined to end with Iverson, the me-first shooting guard trapped in the body of a point guard.

Iverson always has believed that it was his tattoos that brought out the critics. It never was about the tattoos, which have not qualified as edgy since they became trite symbols of individuality.

When 20-something nerds are going around with ink on their bodies, you just know the tattoo movement has lost its capacity to jar.

What Iverson has been unable to grasp all these years is that not everyone loves a ball hog, no matter how gifted. He could ask Kobe Bryant.

So Iverson is feeling put upon anew in his sixth week of free agency.

He is up against a down economy, skeptical general managers and the Detroit-inspired fallout.

“I feel like I have to prove myself all over again,” he said recently on NBA TV.

That is his Napoleonic complex surfacing again, the chip jutting from his shoulder.

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