From TMZ:

Screw humility … news legend Tom Brokaw says he knows Allen Iverson might never have made it to the NBA without his help … but says there’s a damn good reason he stepped in.

The backstory — back in 1993, a 17-year-old Iverson was sentenced to 15 years in prison for allegedly hitting a white woman at a bowling alley during a brawl.

Brokaw heard about the situation — and felt it was wrong for a teen with no prior criminal record to get such a harsh sentence … so he featured the story on the national news.

It was a huge turning point — and the conviction was eventually overturned. Iverson has publicly praised Brokaw for getting the ball rolling.

So, when we saw Tom out in Cleveland Monday morning — we asked about the situation … and Tom explained why he did what he did.

Man, Tom Brokaw is just an elite class Forrest Gump, isn’t he? He’s been everywhere, seen everything. So why not save the career of one of the grrreeeeastest NBA players of all-time along the way?

I can’t get enough Brokaw, Nightly News host emeritus, and his claivoyant existence. Every few weeks or months, Lester Holt, the hardest working man in news who still for some reason stoops to doing Dateline voiceovers, throws it to Brokaw for his take on the soup du jour. At the convention this week, I’m pretty sure Brokaw recalled when Lincoln and Johnson were at odds at the National Union Convention in 1864 and then compared that to his time observing warring generals at the Battle of Chengpu. The man loves and knows his history, mostly because he’s lived it, but none more than World War II and the Greatest Generation, which is just a convenient excuse for me to bust out my oft-requested* Brokaw impression:

*It’s not.

Side note: I love at the beginning how Brokaw gives the photographer the hand, like, “If you’re not gonna talk to me about how the boys returned from The War and repurposed our military industry capabilities leading to huge advancements in technology and goods, then we ’bout done here”:

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WWII.