Lakers News: Allen Iverson Unpacks Meme-Worthy Moment From 2001 Finals Against LA

The Answer talks about his most infamous move.

Hall of Fame Philadelphia 76ers point guard Allen Iverson may never have won an NBA title, but he was a massive cultural figurehead during his 14-year pro run.

The closest he got to a championship came during a charmed run through the 2001 playoffs, when the newly-crowned league MVP led Philadelphia to an NBA Finals matchup against your Los Angeles Lakers.

This was probably the most dominant club during the Shaquille O'Neal/Kobe Bryant Lakers' three-peat run. The 2001 Lakers had swept the entire Western Conference en route to the NBA Finals, and seemed virtually unbeatable.

In a new NBA TV documentary, "Everything But The Chip: The 2001 76ers," Iverson explained perhaps the most meme-able moment from his best game in the series, per Joseph Salvador of Sports Illustrated.

Across 52:57 during a 107-101 overtime Sixers Game 1 win, Iverson scored 48 points on 18-of-41 shooting from the field (3-of-8 from deep) and 9-of-9 foul shooting, dished out six dimes, pulled down five rebounds and swiped five steals.

Most famously, AI was in the midst of a scoring heater during that game at one point, and stepped over then-Lakers point guard Tyronn Lue, who was wearing his haircut, to further hammer home the point that Iverson was on one.

“I can’t tell you what the feeling was like… I was in the moment.”

Allen Iverson on his iconic "step over" & Game 1 performance in the 2001 NBA Finals pic.twitter.com/0o1tQxGgGQ

— NBA TV (@NBATV) June 1, 2023

“I can’t tell you what the feeling was like. I can’t duplicate it. I was in the moment,” Iverson reflected. “I just know he fell in front of me, I don’t know how I even thought about stepping over him like that — I was just playing basketball.”

"It was just part of one of these insane games you're watching him have, probably the biggest stage he's ever played on," then-Sixers head coach Larry Brown recalled. "I remember, I looked at all the coaches and we all kind of smiled because we'd never seen anybody do something like that before and probably would never see somebody do it again."

"AI dropped 48 in Game 1. He seemed to be sending a message: 'You're not gonna break me, I'm gonna break you,'" claimed Stephen A. Smith of ESPN.

It's probably worth noting that the Lakers went on to handily win the next four games, by an average of 10 points per, and thus the series. LA would subsequently go on to win the Finals again in 2002. To date, Philadelphia has yet to get out the Eastern Conference Semifinals again.

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