Basketball

Ty Lue no hard feelings on being stepped over by Allen Iverson in iconic 2001 NBA Finals late jumper play: ‘I’ll always be in NBA history’

Photo: Jerry Lodriguss/The Philadelphia Inquirer

Amid the swirling tauntings that surrounds him as much as this present day, Tyronn Lue has no in poor health feelings after being terrorized by Allen Iverson in Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals.

Lue fell as a poor sufferer of Iverson’s historic evening handy the Los Angeles Lakers its first and solely lack of the 2001 postseason. Remarkably, the corridor of fame guard capped off the evening with one of many biggest performs in NBA historical past, draining a vital mid-range jumper over the raucous Staples Center crowd and his sticky contest to steer the underdog Philadelphia 76ers clawing the primary blood of the title sequence.

And the remaining was historical past.

The iconic “Step Over” sequence orchestrated by Iverson continues to make some noise as much as this present day. But for Lue, he has nothing to be ashamed of – because it was all regular and he did his finest to comprise the previous league MVP.

Joining J.J. Reddick in his ‘Old Man and the Three’ podcast, the present L.A. Clippers mentor offered chunky insights concerning the play he turned concerned with whom Iverson emerged as the primary actor.

Via Ky Carlin of the Sixers Wire:

“It’s crazy because I’ll say, first of all, just growing up, and he’s only like two years older than me, but I still idolized him,” Lue mentioned. “Just coming into league, he was already in the league two or three years before me. It was Jordan then it was AI. That’s who I looked up to. 6-foot, braids, fast, so I don’t think I’ve ever said that, but I looked up to him. So having an opportunity, a chance to play against him in the finals, and he made the move and step over, but it wasn’t really a big deal.”

“Like, people go crazy. He crossed me over, I fell down, then he shot, and he stepped. I mean, he snatched it back, I contested it, I fell and he stepped over me. I fell when I contested it. I fell into his foot, like, I rolled my ankle a little bit, fell down, he made a shot, and stepped over me like ‘Oh! That’s a step over!’ I’m like, ‘Okay, well, I mean, it’s AI’. That’s my guy, but like it’s not—he crossed me over, I fell, rolled over, he shot it, stepped over me. I mean, but no, it is what it is, but I think Doug Collins put a lot on it too though. Like ‘Oh! He stepped over him!’ and that add an extra to it and it became more and more but you know, it is what it is.”

The clownings he obtained, and can proceed to achieve from Iverson’s motion over 20 years have handed, doesn’t distract Lue to get pleasure from being a part of a number of snapshots of NBA file books.

“You play hard, you’re gonna get dunked on, you’re gonna get crossed over, you’re gonna get a lot of things. And then guess what? I’ll always be in NBA history. They’re gonna show it all the time. So I’m always gonna be relevant no matter what happens!”

It is actually a beautiful play that deserves a portrait for a basketball fan’s perspective, however Lue deserves a significant respect for not making the play not a lot of an enormous deal.

In the tip, Lue obtained the final chuckle. Behind the management of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, issues went upward immediately for the Lakers. They gained four-straight video games en path to their back-to-back championships. 

Meanwhile, on the long-term perspective, Lue enjoys a superb wealthy of indelible experiences concerned in basketball. Besides taking part in alongside O’Neal and Bryant, he additionally shared the court docket with Michael Jordan in the Washington Wizards. He can even boast anytime he desires that he coached a number of superstars and supervised the one staff in league historical past to climb again from a 3-1 deficit and proceed to win the title towards the most effective common season staff of all time.

At the tip of the day, Lue retains successful and can really be a content material of the affiliation’s most memorable moments without end.


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