Page B3
May 16, 2001
JJortlaub (ßbeeruer
Metro/Sports
Iverson Voted NBA’s M ost Valuable Player
Allen Iverson, who led the over-
achieving Philadelphia 76ers to the
best record in the East, was picked
as the NBA’s Most Valuable Player
on Tuesday.
Iverson got 1,121 points to beat
out San Antonio’s Tim Duncan (706
points) and Los Angeles’ Shaquille
O ’Neal, last year’s winner, who had
578 points from the panel o f sports­
writers and broadcasters in the
United States and Canada.
Iverson — at 6 feet the shortest
player in NBA history to win the
award as well as the lightest at 165
pounds — had 93 first-place votes
out o f a possible 124. Duncan had
18.
He is the first Sixer to win the
award since Moses Malone in 1982-
83, the last year Philadelphia won a
championship. Wilt Chamberlain
and Julius Erving also won the
award for the Sixers.
Iverson led the league in scoring
for the second time in three years,
with an average o f 31.1 points per
game; was first in steals (2.51); and
tied for first in minutes (42.0).
He earned MVP honors in the
All-Star game after his 25-point per­
formance led the East back from a
Allen Iverson earns the NBA's Most Valuable Player award.
21 -point deficit, was NBA Player of
the Month for January and was
Player of the Week twice.
Iverson scored 40 or more points
17 times during the regular season,
including a career-high 54 against
Cleveland on Jan. 6. He matched
that with a scintillating performance
last week in Game 2 o f the Eastern
Conference sem ifinals against
Toronto.
Last year, Iverson was the only
player other than O ’Neal to get an
MVP vote from among 121 cast.
O’Neal would’ve been the first
unanimous MVP choice.
The award caps an amazing turn­
around for Iverson, who was nearly
traded last summer because o f his
contentious re la tio n sh ip w ith
coach Larry Brown.
Iverson promised to change his
ways before training camp opened
and lived up to it, taking over as
Drexler May Move to Blazer Front Office
(AP) — Clyde Drexler said he
might return to the Portland Trail
B lazers next
season as an
assistant gen­
eral manager or
a part owner.
One o f the
m ost popular
p la y e rs
in
Blazer history,
Drexler said he
and owner Pau 1 Clyde Drexler
A llen
have
agreed that he will be back in
some capacity.
“Paul Allen and I have talked,
and he has agreed he wants me
involved, and I have agreed that I
want to be in-
v o 1 v e d , ”
Drexler said.
D re x le r,
who did rule out
co ach in g the
B la z ers, has
long expressed
in te re s t
in
working in an
N B A te a m ’s
front office. It
appears now that the only hurdle
to him joining the Blazers is find­
ing a position.
“I haven’t been offered any­
thing, but we have agreed to do
something,” Drexler said. “What
that will be defined as . . . hope­
fully we will find out in the coming
month. I ’m looking forward to
being part o f it, but it has to be a
good offer, a good position.”
General manager Bob Whitsitt,
who signed a contract extension
last June, has been assured by
Allen that he will return next sea­
son in the same position. The
Blazers’ assistant general man­
ager, Mark Warkentien, is said to
be a candidate for the general
manager position with the Den­
ver Nuggets.
Drexler, who turns 39 in June,
has not had a good relationship
with Whitsitt.
Drexler was critical of Whitsitt
after Whitsitt fired many front
office personnel when he was
hired in 1994. Seven months later,
Whitsitt granted Drexler’s request
to be traded, sending him to Hous­
ton.
Drexler was the Blazers' first-
round draft pick in 1983 and is the
team’s leader in most offensive
categories.
The team retired his jersey in
March.
New Football League Folds After One Season
NEW YORK (AP) — X-it, stage
left.
The XFL folded Thursday after
one season that was a critical and
TV ratings disappointment for the
football league founded by the
World Wrestling Federation and
jointly owned by NBC.
The WWF said its share o f after­
tax losses will be about $3 5 mi Ilion.
N BC’s loss should be similar.
“Despite where our heart was,
we just couldn't make it work from
a financial standpoint,” WWF
chairman Vince McMahon said.
“We tried to figure out every con­
ceivable way to make this work.”
Even with many adjustments
during the season, very little worked
for the XFL between the much-
hyped and w e ll-rated season
opener and the April 21 champion­
ship game, which was watched by
about 75 percent fewer people than
the debut on NBC.
The final game’s national rating
- the championship game between
the Los Angeles Xtreme and the
San Francisco Demons - was a 2.1.
NBC
ho p ed
to
p arla y
tying for 93rd place among prime­
McMahon’s
promotional
skills
to
time shows that week and lower
draw
the
young
male
viewers
that
than anything else on the four ma­
advertisers crave and air games on
jor networks. Each rating point rep-
Saturdays, which
g e n e ra lly have
poor TV ratings.
In the end, the
XFL lasted two
years fewer than
an o th er o utdoo r
sp rin g fo o tb a ll
leag u e — the
.U S F L ,
w hich
started airing on
ABC in 1983 and
folded after three
seasons.
World Wrestling Federation’s Vince McMahon gives
Early games had
up on new XFL.
lascivious cheer­
leader shots, anti-N FL bluster
resents a little more than 1 million
from WWF types, sophom oric
TV homes.
double entendres and scream ing
“ It was a risk we all thought was
announcers — including M inne­
a smart one in this wildly escalating
sota Gov. Jesse V entura, a former
TV rights scene,” said NBC Sports
WWF w restler — who sounded
chairman Dick Ebersol, who had
more like shills than analysts.
hoped to provide his network with
J.K. M cKay, general manager
football after it lost its NFL rights
o
f
the first and only XFL cham-
contract after the 1997 season.
pion Los A ngeles Xtreme, said
the dem ise cam e as a surprise,
especially since the league held
m eetings ju st a week ago in C on­
necticut.
“ I feel very badly,” McKay
said. “ I t’s been a lot o f fun. We
took a lot o f heat in the media. We
tried to put a good product on the
field and allow people to come to
football games who never could
have afforded to .”
Although the quality o f the
football m ight have im proved
during the season, it was telling
that the league’s MVP, Tommy
M addox, threw more than twice
as many interceptions as touch­
downs during a b rief NFL career.
The XFL did give fans im pres­
sive access to the game, includ­
ing cam eras in huddles and mi­
crophones in helmets.
“In terms o f the innovations that
NBC and WWF brought to the game
— I would suggest that you will see
those in the NFL,” McMahon said.
“Our whole imprimatur was to bring
the game closer to the fan.”
Its Has Firalty Happsnsd !
H. & B. Too
o f his debut rap CD, which con­
tains lyrics that NBA commissioner
David Stem called “coarse, offen­
sive and anti-social.”
team captain, playing unselfishly
and becoming a leader on the court.
He also overcame controversy
surrounding the pending release
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