Iverson To Start For Sixers In Return

PHILADELPHIA - Allen Iverson will start for the 76ers in their home game against Denver Nuggets, and may start the rest of the season, Coach Eddie Jordan told the media Monday morning.

The game against one of his old squads will be Iverson's first with Philadelphia since 2006.

There's a lot of excitement surrounding the game, which is already a sellout.

The Sixers have lost nine in a row, so can it get any worse? It can only get better from here, and with "The Answer" back a lot of the fans think it definitely will, Fox 29's Steve Keeley reported from South Philadelphia on Monday.

Fans still think the former league MVP can play at a star level, and the player definitely thinks he can. It helps when that player believes in himself and shows his emotions, his love for this city and its fans and admits he made a huge mistake in ever wanting to leave here in the first place.

Iverson practiced with his teammates for the first time Sunday after they returned from a road trip.

Iverson has brought not only excitement to the fan base here in Philadelphia but also to the entire team, according to his new coach.

We'll see how the team plays with A.I. in the lineup. He's downplaying expectations, which is very smart of him to do given that he hasn't played basketball in a month or ever with these guys.

"Basically, in the last six months, you know I only played, what, 40 minutes, something like that, and I haven’t played basketball in the last month," Iverson said. "So it was rough as far as my conditioning. But, you know, my basketball senses were there."

He said he's trying to learn the team's schemes "on the fly."

"That's the hardest part, just trying to learn the offenses and the defenses and getting into a rhythm and doing it," Iverson said.

The timing of No. 3's return is very interesting as it comes just after a 60 Minutes report Sunday with local native and disgraced former NBA referee Tom Donaghy.

Banished from the NBA, out of jail and now with a book out, Donaghy talked about how referees do not like Iverson.

"He had threatened one of our officials, and the NBA fined him $25,000, and we felt as a group that he should have been suspended. And because he wasn't, we felt like we would teach him a lesson," Donaghy said. "In the pre-game meetings, we came to the conclusion that we were not going to give Allen Iverson any marginal plays to the basket. And that absolutely should have been called a foul that I and the other referees passed on."

It will be interesting to see if – now with Iverson back, Donaghy's book out and that referee still in the league – how the calls go for the Sixers.