Posted Monday, November 09, 2009 02:13 PM
Here in New England there are only two deities -- God Himself/Herself, and Bill Belichick. In God We Trust is on the currency, and In Bill We Trust is in the Foxboro town charter.
Bill is riding high with a three-game winning streak and five wins in the last 6 games. First place in the AFC East etc. etc etc.
But God appeared to have suffered a rare if not unprecedented defeat this past weekend when Allen Iverson bolted the Memphis Grizzlies, apparently to either deal with a family issue or run from the embarrassment of not having enough juice left to start for one of the wrost teams in the league. Maybe both.
God, you may recall, was the One who had a one-on-one with Iverson last summer and told the veteran guard that He wanted him to sign with the Girzzlies. The Big Guy was so sure of this that he fixed it so no other team in the league would offer Iverson a contract. And Iverson was so impressed that he had no choice but to head to Music City.
It seemed an odd mix at the time -- a team with a young roster signing a 34-year-old egomaniac who had played a leading role in tearing apart the Pistons last season. But Grizz management had to put butts in the seats, and so they dumped Iverson on coach Lionel Hollins.
After coming back from an injury Iverson was forced to come off the bench, which brought great shame to both Iverson and his entourage, and was apparently such as embarrassment that last weekend Iverson bolted the club. I... [More]