Iverson looked back on his Denver years with gratitude in a new social media post.
Nearly twenty years after one of the most talked-about trades of the 2000s, Allen Iverson is still thanking the franchise that caught him on the other side of it.
The Hall of Fame guard took to Instagram this week with a heartfelt message about his time with the Denver Nuggets, reflecting on the two seasons he spent in the Mile High City after a decade in Philadelphia.
Old teammates and fans flooded the comments with support, turning a simple throwback into one of the warmer basketball moments of the weekend.
What Iverson Said
Iverson thanked the Nuggets for "embracing me & helping me with the most difficult transition of my career" in the post, referring to his December 2006 trade out of Philadelphia.
The Sixers sent him to Denver for Andre Miller, Joe Smith, and two first-round picks, ending a run that included an MVP award and a trip to the 2001 Finals.
Leaving the only franchise he had ever known was a shock, and his message showed how much the Denver locker room softened that landing.
The love flowed both ways during his stint, as Iverson gave Nuggets fans plenty to cheer about alongside Carmelo Anthony.
The Numbers He Left Behind
The production in Denver held up with the best stretches of his career.
Iverson averaged 25.6 points and 7.1 assists across 135 games with the Nuggets while shooting 45.6 percent from the field, and he dropped a Denver-era high of 51 points against the Lakers in 2007.
The Nuggets reached the playoffs in both of his seasons, earning the sixth seed in 2007 before winning 50 games in 2008.
Denver traded him to Detroit for Chauncey Billups early the next season, a deal that eventually helped push the franchise to the 2009 Western Conference finals, and Iverson entered the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016 with those two Denver seasons stitched into his resume.
A Franchise Still Worth Praising
The timing of the shoutout lands well for a Denver organization navigating a busy offseason.
The front office has spent recent weeks working to keep its core together around Nikola Jokic, and the team reportedly feels confident about retaining Peyton Watson in restricted free agency.
Denver also parted with backup center Jonas Valanciunas to open up flexibility, and trade chatter continues to swirl around two starters as the roster takes shape.
Hearing one of the greatest guards ever describe the organization as a place that embraced him at his lowest is an endorsement no press release can buy, and it arrived while the franchise works through some genuinely difficult roster questions.
Iverson will always belong to Philadelphia first, but his post made plain that Denver owns a real piece of his story, and Nuggets fans were more than happy to claim it back.
