I’m still at a loss for words after watching Allen Iverson’s Hall of Fame speech last night. It was the realest talk we’ve heard from an athlete in quite a long time. Sure, A.I. had a speech somewhat prepared but he barely read from it. Instead he spent most of the roughly 30 minutes just speaking from the heart and making everyone in the crowd and folks watching at home get emotional. I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t a supporter of Iverson and didn’t want to see him win and that was on full display last night with the amount of love he was getting.

@IamJoeSports

I think for the most part, fans were expecting an epic speech from Iverson and boy did he deliver. Not a single second of it felt disingenuous or rehearsed. He shed tears, he laughed, he was serious. His emotions were all over the place, which is exactly what you would expect from someone who has reached the pinnacle of his sport and taking some time to reflect on his legendary career.

One of the best parts of the speech was all the people he thanked. I think everyone was ready to get misty eyed as a tearful A.I. thanked Georgetown coach, John Thompson, for saving his life and being the only college that was willing to take him after he was arrested during his senior year of high school.

On a lighter note, he solidified his GOAT status in the hip hop community by becoming the first (and likely last) player to thank guys like Jadakiss, Camron, Jim Jones, Biggue, Tupac, Redman, Fabolous and more for providing him with the music soundtrack to his career.

Some of his best comments were reserved for the moment he met Michael Jordan on the court his first time during his rookie year. He managed to relate seeing MJ on the court to a Chappelle show skit about Rick James. “For the first time in my life, a human didn’t seem real” Iverson said in regards to Jordan.

I could go on and on about how great this speech was but honestly if you haven’t watched it yet you really need to because my words could never do it justice in describing just how great this moment was.

Salute to you, Allen Iverson!