Allen Iverson's Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement speech got emotional quickly Friday as the 2001 NBA MVP and 11-time NBA All-Star thanked Georgetown coach John Thompson "for saving my life."
Amid heartfelt, tearful, joyful, thanks to his family, his Georgetown family, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson (yes, that MJ), Jadakiss, Larry Brown, Julius 'Dr. J' Irving, his wife, Tawanna Iverson, and many more, A.I. also thanked Brendan Gaughan. Yes, that Brendan Gaughan, the NASCAR XFINITY Series driver of the No. 62 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.
Iverson made NASCAR drivers proud in his thanks to his sponsor, too. "Gotta thank Reebok. A lifetime contract? Whoo!"
The Gaughan-Iverson connection goes back to the 1990s. Gaughan was a Hoya, too. Thompson tapped him specifically to make Iverson work hard and gain mental toughness in practice – by bumping him, beating on him. A bit like racing – banging doors, putting on the bump-and-run.
"Allen Iverson's a lot quicker than me, and I was told to stop him [in practice] any way possible,” Gaughan told Philly.com in 2003. "Hold him, push him, punch him, bite him. ... My job was to annoy the hell out of [Iverson]."
Gaughan offered that quote while defending his former teammate after Iverson missed a pair of free throws in a Philadelphia 76ers playoffs loss to the Detroit Pistons. He also said simply, "Lay off Allen Iverson."
"Allen is one of the nicest guys I've ever met, and one of the smartest men I've ever met," said Gaughan, who joked with the Inquirer that he himself averaged "0.2 points" before graduating from Georgetown with a business management degree in 1997.
That's the kind of friend who gets a shoutout in a Hall of Fame enshrinement speech.
As the NASCAR XFINITY Series gets ready to launch its inaugural Chase, with Gaughan locked in, it bears remembering the No. 62 driver knows how to guard and bump and bang with the best.