May 21, 2025
MJ felt that bringing ‘The Answer’ would ‘prohibit our progress’ as a team.
When Michael Jordan was a minority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats many years ago, coach Larry Brown (2008-2010) wanted to bring Allen Iverson to the team, but Jordan nixed the idea, citing it would “prohibit our progress” as a team.
According to The Basketball Network, in a video interview from 2017, Brown, who started as an NBA coach (Denver Nuggets) in 1974 and retired as an NBA coach after his stint with the Bobcats in 2010, told Graham Bensinger that, at one time, he tried to bring the explosive guard to the team. Jordan, while trying to build a championship squad, liked Iverson’s game and may have felt like he would impede the progress he was trying to make with his young players.
Brown, who previously coached and clashed with Iverson, knew firsthand of Iverson’s ability but figured Jordan was right.
“I wanted to bring him to Charlotte,” Brown told Bensinger. “And Michael admired Allen, and Allen loved Michael. But Michael said, ‘Larry, if we bring him back, you’re gonna play him ahead of some of these young kids, and that’s gonna prohibit our progress.’ And he was right.”
Now, years later, and an NBA Hall of Famer, Iverson is making moves as an executive at Reebok. His current title as Vice President of Reebok Basketball has led him to spearhead a golf-inspired version of his iconic basketball sneaker, the Question Low Golf.
Starting June 4, you can catch him and Shaquille O’Neal, President of Reebok Basketball, in a Netflix series that documents the two of them working to bring Reebok to the top of the sneaker brands again. The project is titled Power Moves with Shaquille O’Neal, and will focus on the former Orlando Magic center making executive decisions to bring back the brand that sponsored him and Iverson during the heydays of their respective NBA careers.
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