Allen Iverson Misses Mandatory Team Bowling Event

His inevitable response:

“Anybody tell you that I missed a mandatory team bowling event…if a coach tells you that I missed a mandatory team bowling event, then you all hear it, then that’s that. I mean, I might have missed one team bowling event this year. But if somebody say, ‘He doesn’t come to mandatory team bowling events’ it could be one mandatory team bowling event. Out of all the mandatory team bowling events this year, that’s enough…If I can’t bowl, I can’t bowl. If I’m hurt, I’m hurt. I mean, simple as that. It ain’t about that. It’s not about that at all. It’s easy to talk about, it’s easy to sum it up. It’s easy to talk about open lanes. We’re sitting here, I’m supposed to be the franchise player and we in here talking about open lanes. Listen, we talking about open lanes. Not league play! Not league play! Not league play! We’re talking about open lanes. Not league play. Not the league play that I go out there and die for and bowl every game like it’s my last. Not league play. We’re talking about open lanes, man. How silly is that? When we’re talking about open lanes. I know I’m supposed to be there, I know I’m supposed to lead by example. I know that. I’m not shoving it aside like it don’t mean anything. I know it’s important. I do, I honestly do. But we talking about open lanes man. What are we talking about? Open lanes? We’re talking about open lanes man. We talking about open lanes. We ain’t talking about league play. We talking about open lanes. When you come into the alley, and you see me bowl. You see me bowl don’t you? You see me give everything I got, don’t you? But we talking about open lanes right now. We talking about open…man, look, I hear you. It’s funny to me too. It’s strange to me too. But we talking about open lanes man. We’re not even talking about league play, the actual league play, when it matters. We’re talking about open lanes. How the hell can I make my teammates better by bowling at open lanes.”

Oh, and also, he left practice early the previous night because he was fatigued.