Allen Iverson Breaks Down His Most Iconic Looks | GQ Sports Style Hall of Fame

[Interviewer] At what point did you feel comfortable

with showing the world who Allen Iverson was?

From day one.

The easiest thing in the world is to be yourself.

Everybody else taken up.

Why not be you?

Why not want to be the person that God created?

That's a blessing.

If I died and came back I would want to be Allen Iverson

all over again.

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That was actually probably one of my best outfits

at that time because being the circumstances

of what they were back then, I had to come

with my best outfit knowing that Sports Illustrated

was doing that.

So that was the cream of the crop right there.

I got that Herringbone, some older dudes

from my neighborhood.

They told me that if I scored 40 against our rival team

that they would give me a Herringbone.

I remember during the game I had like 14

or something like that going into a couple minutes left

in the third.

So I had a ways to go to get to 40.

I looked over there at them and they had it in the box

and lifted up and let me see it.

And once I saw it, it was over.

I just started going crazy.

Ended up with like 40 something.

I would kill to have that, that chain right there.

But as I got older and that didn't mean too much to me.

Now I'm looking back on it,

I would love to have something like that.

Matter of fact, I might, get one done,

just cause show it off and act like

that was the original one.

If people don't see this, then I can get away with it.

[Interviewer] You gotta talk about the Jordan 11s.

For sure, that was like a dream come true for me

being that we were sponsored by Nike.

I think the first year we just had some regular Jordans

but then when I knew we were wearing them it was,

it was a rap, you know what I mean?

I felt like a superhero in them for me to get those.

I used to always tell coach I ripped mine

or they were wearing out

on the bottom whatever to get new pair.

As an athlete, I felt like, you play like you look,

you look good you play good growing up,

I ain't really cared too much about clothes.

As long as my kicks was right, I was good.

So I wanted to be like Mike for sure.

I mean, just like the commercial

like I really actually felt like that,

when the commercial came out I was like, yo, yeah, me too.

My mom, told me I could be anything that I wanted to be.

He gave me the vision.

I wanted to be a guy that if you came to see,

you was gonna go home with that one guy on your mind.

When Black Jesus on the court, yeah,

everybody gonna know who 23 is, but when you leave tonight

you gonna know who number three is.

I remember the suit, my agent took me out, got me measured

and everything and that was a great experience.

Something that I remember and cherish

for the rest of my life.

Just to have, my first tailor-made suit

I felt like I had arrived, felt good.

[Interviewer] Do you remember that feeling of Draft Night?

I knew I was gonna go number one but I didn't know

you know what I mean?

When you go through so many trials and tribulations,

so many ups and downs in your life,

that was one of those times where I was,

it was a kind of a happy nervous, you know what I mean?

Because I did feel like I was going to get drafted

but I really wanted to be number one.

The number one thing that I would never forget

when it come to my NBA career,

is that day just being drafted.

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[Interviewer] As a competitor, going up against your idol,

what was that like?

It was surreal.

A moment that I never forget or obviously being

on the court with my idol, somebody I still admire.

Me and you talked about it a little earlier before

we started.

It was a great feeling.

It's an honor to have guys that grow up

and want to be like me.

I know how they feel because I felt that way

once the ball went up in the air, all of that just go away

and then you just start playing basketball,

start doing what you love.

So we talk about the crossover.

That was just, I was gonna try my move

against the greatest player in the world.

I mean I told my friends, before the game

and even even leading up to the game that one day

if I got the opportunity I was gonna try it.

[Interviewer] What did the Question represent to you?

A big long journey.

It took a lot of hard work to be able

to one day have your own signature shoe.

That was my dream.

Obviously, you can go back to Mike and everything

that he accomplished.

Him having his own signature shoe,

I remember them and it didn't take much,

I don't think I changed much because when somebody hands

you a shoe and say this is your shoe

probably could have handed me a Timberland

and I would've played in that.

[group laughing]

It just was icing on the cake that they look good enough

to whereas people still wear them 25 or more years later,

I think that's dope.

[Interviewer] You talk about the braids a little bit.

How did you choose the styles?

If it was a big game,

I might have the patience to sit there for an hour

and some change.

But if it was a game where I wanted to get some rest

and I didn't really care about the look or anything

like that, I'd just get me something real quick

like a national game or something like that,

I get something real crazy.

I started with the headband after the 2001 season.

After that point I never took it off

after I started wearing it 'cause I just trip off

our guys get mad during the game and they'll take

their headband off and not wear it no more.

Like the headband had something to do

with him not playing well.

[Interviewer] Where did the style and the necessity merge?

Mike, I mean I always felt like he looked

like a superhero idea, you know what I mean?

If you look at him, look at highlights today.

If you look at him back then when he played

no one looked like him.

Obviously the greatest player.

But he always looked the smoothest too.

I used to love when he had the bald head with the goatee.

Then he had the knee brace, but he wore it on his shin.

Then with the wrist band

or obviously I bit the wristband from him.

I used to like to wear the black socks.

The Mike Tyson looked then the sleeve I had got hurt

and then I actually like was wearing it

to hold a bursa sac down.

'Cause I had the swelling in my elbow when I got surgery.

I used to wear it to press the fluid down.

And then when my arm healed, I was so used to wearing it.

I was watching video one time

and he had a sleeve on in the video and I was like, okay,

now it's out of control.

You know what I mean?

And then I just started seeing everybody wear the sleeve

and I just think it's dope, that I started it

and people actually call it the AI Sleeve.

Messed up by not copyrighting that.

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[Interviewer] Can you talk about the influence

that hip hop culture had on your style?

I'm just a big, a real, real big fan.

And then hip hop and basketball go hand in hand.

We hooking up at parties and clubs and stuff

like that and you grow a relationship with those guys

and you end up, just being around them.

You like their swag.

They like yours.

[Interviewer] Do you remember the relationship

with Jadakiss and the the Reebok commercial?

Hell yeah, that's my man.

[Interviewer] How how'd that collab come about?

That's my dawg, I mean, 'cause that's my man,

and I thought it was a cool idea.

[Interviewer] In part two, did you write that verse?

Yeah, I wrote it.

Jada will tell you I wrote it and then and I'm telling you

I'm not saying it like bragging like I was some great rapper

'cause I was terrible.

I wanted to do it 'cause my homeboys wanted me to do it

to try to make a better way for them.

It was a bad idea, I'm so embarrassed for doing that now.

Looking back on it and then listening to it.

Oh my god, it's torture.

[Interviewer] We can get into the tattoos?

I was really addicted to them.

I had one when I got into the league.

I just couldn't afford 'em.

I would've been got a bunch of them

but once I got into league,

I just went crazy 'cause I was able to able to do it.

And all my tattoos mean something,

I couldn't believe that I got that many.

I can't stand needles anyway.

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It started with me and my mom.

My mom was real big on it.

I used to be five, six, seven years old.

I was infatuated with it, just jewelry period.

I was just a big fan of it and it always stuck with me

and it was just always a dream of mine to one day

be able to get the jewelry that I actually wanted.

I can imagine myself if God blessed me to be 90-something,

100-years old, I still have jewelry on.

'Cause I love it.

It's just a part of me.

It's who I am.

I just feel like the way I put it together is,

the flyest way.

The one who influenced me a lot was probably Puff.

I played in the Rucker

with him like right when I got into the league

and I got a chance to hang out with him and go with him

to his jeweler and stuff like that.

I was like, yo, this dude know where it's at.

[Interviewer] You even mentioned Timbs earlier,

that was such a part of the culture.

Yeah, I mean and that's crazy

'cause I used to wear him like every day.

The Timbs was just, I mean I loved them

and I did the photoshoot today.

I think those were the first time I had on Timbs

in maybe about 20 or more years.

And that was actually my favorite thing to wear

besides sneakers.

That picture right there was so real.

Even with those sizes, four x sweats cut crazy.

That's crazy.

Look at them.

I mean them straight Hammer pants

I don't think that style's never coming back.

You wear it now, it's like you have no choice

but to wear it like that's all you own.

[group laughing]

[Interviewer] And then the next one we got the blue fur.

I think I was about 20 something,

I actually wore that one All-Star weekend

maybe two years ago.

That was in my mom crib.

It was so big man.

I had to get it cut all up and I made earmuffs

for my daughters.

That thing was so big, man.

I'm talking about Shaq size.

Clothes I wore was so big.

Like I used to go to the the big and tall,

and I would go in there and wipe 'em out.

Like the big guys on the squad would be mad as hell.

We went in there and you took everything out of there.

All the big T-shirts, all the big jeans, everything.

And the crazy part about it is them big ass jeans and pants

and sweats, the bottoms was always tapered.

So you were able to actually see your shoe.

Yeah, that was all white party in Atlantic City.

40-40 Club, I think.

I still don't do like real tight, tight

when you can see how much money I got in my pocket.

My whole thing was, I am that, that's where I come from.

The stuff that I wore, I would've been wearing it already.

I just, like I said, I couldn't afford it.

Everybody talk about my dress code and how I dress,

all I was doing was dressing

like the guys that I grew up around.

[Interviewer] You remember in 2005

when they implemented dress code?

And I just put my own flavor with it.

December '05, I wouldn't have wore that out nowhere.

But the outfit, November's '07,

the next one I wore that out somewhere.

When I was young, man, I ain't never wore no suit

or dressed up to go to the park to play.

I always thought that wearing a suit

and all that stuff was very uncomfortable.

But it's way more professional being older now

it even looked better.

Getting right is is nice.

[Interviewer] What was that moment like

being inducted to the Hall of Fame?

It was a tribute to everybody to help me get there.

You can't accomplish something like that by yourself, man.

You don't do that by yourself.

I thank myself, because I put in the work

and I went out there

and I played every game like it was my last

like we talked about in the beginning,

I was just happy to be drafted.

Being from where I'm from, that was one of the icing

on the cake right there

to be one of the best to ever play in the world.

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