In 1996, the Philadelphia 76ers drafted a young teenager by the name of Allen Iverson. If you’re not familiar with him or his career at this point then good for you because he’s arguably one of the best players in NBA history. And it feels like that was always going to be true back when they traded for him straight up from Georgetown University before his collegiate debut and only 3 years after being selected 10th overall in 1995…
The Philadelphia 76ers GM Who Dealt Charles Barkley Just Claimed His Hilariously Awful Trade Is the Reason the Franchise Landed Allen Iverson. He was traded for a bag of balls and some cash from Phoenix in 1996. The trade is widely considered one of the worst deals in league history.
After the 1999-00 season, Charles Barkley announced his retirement from the NBA as a player. Allen Iverson had been in the league for three years and had previously earned the Rookie of the Year award with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1996-97.
He would earn MVP the next season and lead the team to the NBA Finals.
In 1992, the Round Mound of Rebound was transferred from Philadelphia to the Phoenix Suns. However, the general manager of the Sixers who dealt Barkley maintains that it was as a result of that transaction that Iverson became the team’s No. 1 choice.
It’s been four years.
Apparently, putting together such a horrible transaction that your club tanked for four years and couldn’t recover is a good method for team building?
In 1992, the Sixers traded Charles Barkley to the Phoenix Suns.
During a game against the Washington Bullets, Charles Barkley of the Philadelphia 76ers watches from the bench. | Mitchell Layton/Getty Images
The narrative of Chuck’s trade to the Suns is a rollercoaster ride in and of itself. It’s been in the headlines again recently because of the Ben Simmons incident, but Barkley’s agreement didn’t go over as well as Big Ben’s (probably).
Philadelphia’s franchise player had just finished a season in which he averaged 23.1 points, 11.1 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 1.8 steals while shooting over 55 percent from the field.
The Sixers, on the other hand, were 35-47 at the time and didn’t have much to look forward to.
Jim Lynam had recently taken over as the franchise’s GM after serving as Chuck’s coach for more than four years, according to a report in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“We came to the judgment — right or wrong — that we weren’t in a position to be a significant competitor at some point,” Lynam told the Inquirer.
So, in exchange for Jeff Hornacek, Andrew Lang, and Tim Perry, Barkley flew to Phoenix.
In hindsight, not a whole lot. However, according to Lynam, it finally turned out to be.
Four years later, with the No. 1 selection, the Philadelphia 76ers selected Allen Iverson.
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Hornacek was an All-Star in Phoenix and went on to play for the Utah Jazz, who lost consecutive NBA Finals against Michael Jordan’s Bulls.
Perry was a well-known collegiate basketball player.
The next year, though, Barkley won the league’s MVP award and led the Suns to the NBA Finals (where they, of course, lost to MJ). It was the decade of the 1990s.)
That’s where Lynam’s (contentious? dubious? comes in with an iffy?) point of view on the subject. Because of the poor return he received for Barkley, the club was so awful for four years that they “deserved” the No. 1 selection in 1996 and were allowed to choose AI.
According to Lynam, everything worked out for Philly:
Unfortunately, we did not get enough in return in our instance. So you lose a player of Barkley’s caliber and are unable to find a similar replacement. But, in my perspective, dealing Charles Barkley led to Allen Iverson if you draw the links.
Jim Lynam, the former general manager of the Sixers, discusses dealing Charles Barkley and selecting Allen Iverson.
Perhaps Lynam was just ahead of his time. Many clubs are now trying to tank in order to get a generational player by trading away dissatisfied superstars.
It worked in this circumstance. However, it is a difficult logic problem to solve.
Iverson took the Sixers to the Finals when Barkley couldn’t.
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One of those legendary players was The Answer. With his recklessness, AI revolutionized the way the game is played for small guards, much to what Stephen Curry has done with his shooting.
Perhaps it was worth four years of losing basketball to get from Barkley to Iverson in hindsight. However, rationalizing a bad transaction by stating, “Hey, look what happened four years later!” isn’t the most effective team-building tactic.
And, while the Simmons issue continues, ask them how they feel about The Process, which is essentially Lynam’s “tactic” but done on purpose.
Basketball Reference provided all statistics.
‘When you go after Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan, and he came at me a little bit, you’re just going big-game hunting,’ Charles Barkley said of Scottie Pippen’s latest attacks.
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