I think you might be better served on this one, WOW, if you just refer to what you, Dan, and Rick have as a difference of opinion regarding how much environment affects the adult attitudes of suddenly wealthy athletes.
The influx of abrupt wealth does not immediately change the lifelong habits and mores of young, "ghetto" educated black men. That by concentrating on perfecting a talent in a given sport might help to remove them temporarily from the influences of their surroundings for a while does not mean they don't have to deal with those influences once they leave whatever playing field on which they perform.
But it has to be the influences of responsible adults in their lives who want to get them away from those bad influences - and their own willingness to BE removed from them - that ultimately makes these young men conscientious adults. Unfortunately for many of them, this is a trial and error process, with the consequences of the 'error' part sometimes too noticable to ignore.
Allan Iverson clearly is not the brightest bulb in the pack. While his talent is unquestioned, you can easily see his lack of leadership - a direct connection to intelligence, BTW - by his comments regarding practice time and his conflicts with some of his coaches. Leaders lead by example, on the court as well as off it in his case, as much as they lead by stature and skills.
A much, much better example of a true leader on the 76'ers, who admittedly learned how to lead by default, trial and error, and his intelligence, would be Chris Webber. While not quite fitting in with the team last year after his trade, he has clearly established himself on the team by understanding his role so much clearly this season. When he returned from his knee injury to the Kings, he was not doing what a leader should do by demanding his starting role back and he hindered a higher skilled offensive team by inserting himself back into the mix before he fully trusted his knee, and it killed the cohesiveness.
His first year with the 76'ers was a conflict with Iverson from the start because he suddenly was not the focus of the offense and he was out of place. But it was Webber who adapted to Iverson's game that helped the team, not so much Iverson changing anything from what he was doing.
It also should be noted about Webber. As far as I can tell, he is the only player to come back from that type of knee surgury to play anywhere near how he played before getting hurt. That is another example of what leaders do - they rehab injuries beyond what the doctors suggest, so they actually can play again. Maybe the other guys just did not have surgeons as skilled as the one who operated on Chris, but this guy worked harder then anyone will ever know to come back, plus he refused to come back too early (and was still criticized for returning too soon) so his leg could completely heal.
The point is, both Kobe and Iverson are perceived as leaders on their teams, but look at how they lead. Kobe recently got himself suspended for 'talking' about essentially hurting anyone who dared drive the lane against him. Not good leadership, is it? Iverson plays hurt like no one has before him, but do you really want all his teammates, most of whom are very unlikely not to kill themselves in the process, plowing into the stands or flinging themselves on the hardwood ten times a game? Maybe a real team leader goes to practice to show his teammates that even superstars need to work on their games and and protect their bodies from unnecessary injury to make sure they are around for the playoffs in one piece.
And leaders do not take guns to apartments in which they break into, rape young women, or for that matter hang out with dope in their suitcases like Webber did. But Chris is smart. No one ever seems to remember much about his careless moments any more because he is a master spin doctor, just like MJ and Magic were.
That is a true leader, in sports as well as politics.
