I'm not going to lie, this entry is quite fitting considering the person involved just re-signed with the Sixers today. I swear, I didn't have this planned out or anything. It just sort of happened this way. Regardless, Allen Iverson makes his first of two showings on this list, as the Sixers get just a little bit of love. Only Wilt Chamberlain scored more points in a single game for the Sixers, and Iverson reached this mark in a game as a Sixer for the first time since Wilt did it back in 1967.
Moment #22: Allen Iverson scores 60 points in a game-February 12, 2005
Since he led the Sixers to the NBA Finals in the 2000-01 season, Allen Iverson had watched Philadelphia slowly slip back down the slope of NBA teams. The 56 wins in the NBA Finals season dropped to 43 the next season, 48 the year after that and 33 the following season. The 2004-05 Sixers were on the same path, hovering two games below .500 with a team that had Iverson, a rookie named Andre Iguodala and Kyle Korver. That was about it. Somehow, they were just two games back of the Boston Celtics for first place in the Atlantic Division, and they readied themselves as the Orlando Magic came to the Wachovia Center for what most people saw as just another regular season game.
Allen Iverson quickly changed all that. With the Sixers needing a win, The Answer came out the same way he always has: shooting. On this night, most of his shots managed to find the hoop. By the end of the first quarter, Iverson had 17 points, and the Sixers were up by nine. Iverson added another 12 points in the second quarter to give him 29 in the first half, and the Philadelphia lead had ballooned to 18. The Magic went on a little run in the third quarter, cutting a 25 point Philadelphia lead to just 11, but Allen had a response at the end of the frame, nailing a three pointer as the quarter came to a close to give him 40 points on the night. That would be impressive enough, but there were still another 12 minutes to play in the game.
In typical Allen Iverson fashion, he played almost the entire game, and finished stronger than he even started. His 50th and 51st points came after taking a hard foul. He made both free throws, and then proceeded to score the next seven points for the Sixers, tying his career high of 58. With the Magic now out of reach from coming back, Iverson would only manage to score two more points on the night, but they were the two that mattered the most to everyone in the seats that night. A foul by Jameer Nelson set Iverson back to the free throw line, where he nailed two more shots, giving him his 59th and 60th points of the night. With his 60th point, he became the first and only other Philadelphia 76er since Wilt Chamberlain to score 60 points in a single game. The Sixers went on to beat the Magic, 112-99. Iverson finished the game shooting 17 of 36, and going 24 for 27 at the free throw line. The win pushed the Sixers within a game of the Boston Celtics for the division lead, and moved them closer to the .500 mark.
The rest of the season went about the same way for the Sixers. A trade for Chris Webber later in February didn't pay as many dividends as people thought it would, and though the team finished with a 43-39 record, they could only claim the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference. They faced off against their old coach, Larry Brown, and the defending champion Detroit Pistons, who finished off the Sixers in five games. Iverson finished the year with a league leading 30.7 points per game, but his career in Philadelphia never reached the same heights again as it did that night against the Magic.
He would play one more full year with the Sixers, before being traded to the Denver Nuggets for Andre Miller, Joe Smith and two first round picks. The Sixers have only finished at .500 once since the 2004-05 season, and are struggling again right now, but Allen Iverson just re-signed today with the team, and he's more than likely going to end his career back where it all began. I doubt he can find the 60 point magic again, like he did on this night, but at least he's a Sixer again.
Here's the video from that fun night. It's from the Orlando broadcast, but I'll take what I can get.
Moment number 21 is a fun one. It's the first time on this list that I can remember thinking that the player involved might have been dead after the moment happened.
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