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Billy King Details the Failed Trade that Almost Sent Allen Iverson to Detroit
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The 2026 Philadelphia 76ers aren’t worth talking about this week, so here’s a post about the 2001 team, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Not sure how many younger fans realize this, but Allen Iverson was almost shipped to Detroit back in the day, and Governor Shapiro asked Billy King about it as part of the gov’s interview series:
“(the relationship between) Larry (Brown) and Allen (Iverson) had gotten to the point where it was, okay let’s make a deal. I had come up with the trade, and it was four teams. I think it was 18 players. Some were going to Detroit, some were going to the Lakers, some were going to Charlotte. I think Eddie Jones was going to end up with us, Glen Rice. We were getting some All Stars. And then I remember on a Sunday, back then there wasn’t email, so I’d do all the deals, fax it to everybody, and then have a conference call. Every time I’d fax out the deals so they could look through the numbers. Somebody would say ‘I don’t want that guy,’ so I’d redo the deal and fax it back out. So on a Sunday, I get a call from (Pistons GM) Joe Dumars, and he says ‘there are two guys we’re cutting because we gotta sign Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins. At this point Ben Wallace was in Orlando and not playing much and Chucky Atkins I think was in Orlando, he was gonna sign as a free agent. I said ‘Joe, you’re getting Allen Iverson, you’re going to sign Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins?’ He goes, ‘well, we’ve already made an agreement and we’ve got to cut two guys.’ So now, to make the numbers work, the only way to do it is Matt Geiger would have to waive a trade kicker, and it was going to cost him like $400,000. So I called David Falk (Geiger’s agent), and he goes ‘Billy, I don’t know if he’s going to do this, and as an agent I don’t recommend him giving up money if he’s going to be traded. He comes back and says ‘he won’t do it.'”
The background is that Iverson was feuding with Brown ahead of the 2000-2001 season and the relationship was thought to be untenable. So they put together a trade that would have returned Eddie Jones, Glen Rice, Jerome Williams, and Dale Ellis. Jones was a 3x All-Star at that point and really good defensive player. Glen Rice was 32 at the time but also a 3x All-Star. Jerry Stackhouse and Christian Laettner were supposed to go to Charlotte and Anthony Mason and Toni Kukoc to the Lakers.
Of course, A.I. stayed and won MVP and the rest is history. Ben Wallace became a 4x DPOY in Detroit and won a ring with Atkins alongside Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace, Rip Hamilton, and Tayshaun Prince. And then A.I. wound up in Detroit in 2008 as his NBA career was winding down.
disclaimer: this is not a political post. Crossing Broad does not endorse politicians or parties. if Dave McCormick interviewed Todd MacCulloch and the content was relevant for Philly sports fans, we’d blog about it
Full interview here:
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com