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古巴版勇者鬥惡龍
Cuban Dragon Quest

請原諒我用詼諧的語調來講述一個英雄的傳奇。 如不是這樣，這文章會顯得太批判且爭議。這個故事是有關於古巴英雄Che Guevara。Che Guevara 古巴式西文發音接近「謝•給巴喇」。謝一輩子多數的時間都在扮演鬥惡龍的勇者。那麼我們就姑且稱呼他為「勇者謝」吧！
Forgive me for describing a hero’s legend in a comic style. If it is done otherwise, this article would appear too critical as well as controversial. The story begins with a dragon slayer whose name was Che Guevara. Most of his life was spent on trying to slay an evil dragon. So, let’s tentatively call him Che the Dragon Slayer.

勇者謝本名叫Ernesto Guevara。結過兩次婚。第一任妻子生了一個女兒，第二任生了4個孩子。他曾有個美夢想要生一個棒球隊的孩子。後來甚至希望要一個足球隊。
Che the Dragon Slayer’s actual name is Ernesto Guevara, who was married twice with one daughter from the first marriage and four children from the second. He once had a dream of wanting to have a baseball team of kids and a football team for later.

謝出生於阿根廷的一個富裕的家庭。還未成為勇者的謝在醫學院畢業後與友人花了九個月騎摩托車遊歷在各個拉丁美洲國家之中（可參考電影摩托車日記）。這個時期拉丁美洲許多國家活在惡龍的威脅陰影之下。就像最後成為佛祖的那位看遍了人世苦難的印度王子一樣，謝的革命思維在遊歷期間因為見到了許許多多不公不不義而逐漸成熟。
Che was born into a well-to-do Argentinian family. After graduating from medical school and before taking on his dragon slayer title, Che spent nine months touring countries in Latin America with his friend (please refer to the excellent movie The Motorcycle Diaries). Latin America during that time was under the looming shadow from an evil dragon. Like the Indian prince who became Buddha after witnessing all the worldly suffering, Che’s idea to start a revolution to free Latin America became fully developed while he saw many injustices during his trip.

旅程結束後的隔年，謝就加入了革命的行列成為一位真正的勇者，發誓讓中南美洲免於惡龍的威脅。坊間相傳他在墨西哥時三訪卡斯楚，想要加入古巴革命軍。但前前兩次都被拒絕了，第三次他透過卡斯楚的一位阿根廷好朋友跟卡斯楚推薦。第三次卡斯楚終於說：好吧，謝（Che ）你來吧。從此他在秘密行動中開始使用謝這個化名。甚至在給本國人使用的3 CUP上放上了自己勇者謝（Che）的簽名和肖像。
In the year following the end of his journey, Che joined the ranks of the revolution and became a genuine dragon slayer, swearing to free Latin America from the threats of the evil dragon. According to one of Che the Dragon Slayer’s stories among Cubans, he visited Fidel Castro in Mexico three times, each time intending to join the Cuban revolution force. He was turned down the first two times. The third time, Che the Dragon Slayer had a good Argentinian friend of Fidel Castro recommend that Che be allowed to join the force. Finally, Fidel Castro nodded his approval, and said “Che, come and join us!”. Ever since that moment, this dragon slayer adopted the name Che for all his covert operations. He even allowed the name Che and his portrait to be used on the three-dollar CUP bill used by the locals.

前往Santa Clara路上，座落著勇者謝的衣冠塚紀念館。紀念館建築上方豎立了一尊著軍裝的勇者謝雕像。其中值得注意的是他的左手打著石膏。石膏的由來是他在這附近打游擊戰時，為了翻過一道高牆而摔斷了左手臂。因此立在這裡的雕像如實表現勇者鬥惡龍的狀況。在給外國人用的3 CUC的鈔票上的雕像就是這個Che的雕像。
On the way to Santa Clara sits the Che Guevara Mausoleum. A bronze statue of Che the Dragon Slayer in his military uniform was erected on top of the building. When looking carefully, you will notice that the left arm of the statue is in a cast. The story goes that Che the Dragon Slayer was in a battle in this area and broke his left arm when he tried to flip over a wall. Therefore, the statue with the cast reflects truthfully how he fought against the dragon. You can also find an image of this statue printed on the 3-CUC bill that foreigners use.

勇者謝在打贏了古巴革命戰爭之後，以為已經戰勝Boss級的惡龍，接受了古巴央行總裁的職位。他一家人移民到古巴，準備要生出一整個棒球隊的孩子。然而勇者謝不經意轉身一看，卻發現那惡龍卻在其他國家荼毒肆虐。然後，他再次穿上盔甲去非洲剛果幫助當地人打游擊戰。他說必須離開他的家人，但古巴革命會替他照顧他的家人。後來1967年勇者謝在玻利維亞打游擊戰被俘虜然後殺害。而古巴和卡斯楚確實替他照顧他的家人。
After Che the Dragon Slayer won the Revolutionary War, he thought the evil dragon had been slayed. He then accepted the position as the president of the National Central Bank. His family immigrated to Cuba, and he was set to pursue his dream of having a baseball team of kids. However, Che looked around the world and realized that the dragon was making people in other countries suffer. He decided to put on his armor once again to help the people in the Congo fight the dragon. He told the Cuban people that he had to leave and asked that Cuba look after his family for him. And, Fidel Castro and Cuba looked after his family indeed.

在玻利維亞，一些勇者謝招募的人員被惡龍的情報局給收買而一直洩漏他的行蹤，加上惡龍情報局收買當地的其他游擊隊來追殺他，他終於和其他游擊隊員共39人被惡龍的爪牙捕獲。下令殺他的人事後後悔說到他並沒有因為殺了勇者而變成英雄，反而臭了自己的名聲。一位在場的玻利維亞人在臨終之前透露了勇者謝被殺害埋屍的地點。一位比利時研究人員和古巴研究人員合力找到了當時已經變成機場的地址，花了約一個月時間終於挖到了39具遺骸。遺骸以英雄規格被迎接回古巴，由卡斯楚親自迎接。其場面令全國動容。

Che the Dragon Slayer was murdered while leading a guerrilla war in Bolivia.
In Bolivia, some comrades recruited by Che the Dragon Slayer were bought out by the evil dragon’s intelligence service and leaked his whereabouts. Plus, some guerrilla groups were also hired by the evil dragon to hunt him down. He and 38 other guerrilla members were captured. The officer who gave the order to execute Che the Dragon Slayer regretted his actions and mentioned later that he became notorious for executing the dragon slayer. One person present when Che and 38 members were executed revealed on his death bed the location of Che the Dragon Slayer’s burial ground. A Belgian researcher worked together with Cuban researchers and found the burial site at what had become an airport. They spent approximately one month unearthing the remains of the 39 bodies. The remains were then shipped back to Cuba and received with the nation’s highest honors by Fidel Castro. It was a heartfelt scene for the entire nation.

總而言之，這一路過關斬將的勇者謝，有著無比堅定的信念及行動力。如果勇者謝的思想可以被視為一種信仰，那麼他就是信仰中的救世主了。可惜與小說裡的結局不同的是，勇者在半途中倒下，也沒有電玩中的三條命可以回魂。然而在他倒下時所發出的巨響，卻震撼了全世界。 勇者謝身前的一張照片(在3 CUP紙鈔上）被義大利來的記者從古巴的資料庫中給取走，在歐洲媒體刊出並在世界各地造成一股旋風。各地許多嬉皮響應並認同勇者謝想要讓美洲和非洲免於惡龍控制的的革命志向。勇者謝著名的照片於是在世界各地成為了正義與勇氣的象徵。～完結~
All in all, Che the Dragon Slayer, who crossed many hurdles, had an extremely strong faith and success in carrying out his ideals. If his ideology were a religion, he would then be considered its Savior. Unfortunately, unlike happy endings in some novels, the dragon slayer bit the dust along the way. And, he didn’t have three lives either like some of the dragon-slaying video games. However, the enormous sound made by his body falling on the ground shocked the world. The photo portrait of Che Guevara on the three-CUP bill was copied by an Italian journalist and then published in some European media, which created a whirlwind across the world. Over the years following Che the Dragon Slayer’s death, many people have answered Che’s call to free Africa and Latin America from the evil dragon. Che the Dragon Slayer’s famous photo has become a symbolic icon of courage and justice.

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For those who were there at McDonough Gymnasium on August 4, 1994, few will forget the arrival of a 6-0 freshman guard who needed no introduction. The rumors of Allen Iverson's arrival to the Kenner Summer League were true, and by game's end, Iverson had scored 40 points. By the Sunday afternoon final, before an overflow crowd inside the gym and a crowd of those outside who could not get in, Iverson finished a combined 99 point effort in three days against some of the best collegiate talent in the city. This, of course, from a player that had not played organized basketball in over a year.

The Allen Iverson years had begun.

A brief profile can't do justice to tell the story of one of the greatest pure athletes ever to attend Georgetown, a man without peer in his talent over two years at the collegiate level. Just a year before his Kenner debut, few would have imagined Allen Iverson ever playing college basketball.

Iverson was not only a 31 point a game guard for Bethel HS, but a football player of tremendous skill. As a quarterback and defensive back his sophomore season, he produced nearly 1,600 yards offense and 13 INT's. By his junior year, he accounted for 2,204 yards, 21 touchdowns by rush or interception, and 14 touchdown passes. In a region which has produced NFL quarterbacks such as Michael Vick and Aaron Brooks, there are those who will still say "Bubbachuck" Iverson was better than both of them. Schools such as Arkansas, Kentucky, Duke, and three dozen other top programs across two sports were vying for perhaps the greatest two-sport star the Tidewater had ever produced.

When he led Bethel to the state title, someone asked what it was like to win the title. "I'm going to get one in basketball now," which he did. In late February, 1993, en route to the state title he had promised, Iverson was one of a large group of Bethel teammates at a Hampton bowling alley when a fight broke out between students from rival schools trading racial insults. Three people were hurt in the aftermath. Despite conflicting testimony from eyewitnesses and no clear evidence linking him to the crime, Iverson was one of four black students arrested.

Racial tensions were heightened when the prosecutors passed on a misdemeanor assault charge and charged Iverson with three counts of felony "maiming by mob", which carried a 20 year prison sentence. Despite video evidence which did not place Iverson in the crowd at the time of the fight, he was convicted in a racially charged case.

The 20 year sentence was later reduced to five, and Iverson was granted clemency by Gov. Douglas Wilder three months later, sending Iverson to a detention program at an alternative high school. (The original charges were thrown out by the Virginia court of appeals in 1995.)

In the spring of 1994, with Iverson still in detention, his mother approached John Thompson with a plea to help her son get to college and start a new chapter of his life. Though Thompson had passed on a number of troubled players in the past, he offered Iverson a scholarship in April of that season, contingent upon his completion of high school and his legal release, which was granted 48 hours before his Kenner debut.

By his debut in a Georgetown uniform in November 1994, Iverson had been the subject of intense national media attention. In the Hoyas' annual exhibition with Fort Hood, Iverson scored 36 points, five assists, and three steals in 23 minutes. Local columnists were in awe.

"Hang his number up in the rafters," wrote Tom Knott of the Washington Times. "He's better than most of the point guards in the NBA right now."

"I saw Lew Alcindor, Austin Carr, Moses Malone, Alonzo Mourning, Albert King, Ralph Sampson and Patrick Ewing play in high school," said the Post's Thomas Boswell. "Now, I have two memories on my first impression top shelf. The man who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Allen Iverson."

Iverson opened the 1994-95 season in Memphis, TN in a 97-79 loss to defending NCAA champion Arkansas, scoring 19 points. Six days later, he scored 31 in a nationally televised game with DePaul, followed by 30 four days later against Providence, leading the team in scoring 22 times that season. His only game under double figures for the season (and his career) was a game where he played only ten minutes in a loss at Villanova, a game Georgetown coach John Thompson threatened to forfeit when a group of Villanova students paraded through the Spectrum in black and white-striped prison garb, with a sign comparing Iverson to O.J. Simpson.

"You accept certain ribbing, but there is a line," Thompson said after the game. "I can condone any Christian university sitting and watching that happen...If that happens [again], I going to walk. It that simple." Such fan behavior was not seen thereafter.

Later in the season, with President Bill Clinton in attendance, Iverson scored 26 as the Hoyas routed Villanova, 77-52. He followed it up with 21 to beat Syracuse, 28 versus St. John's, 31 in a Big East tournament opener with Miami (a game that saw Iverson outscore the entire Hurricane team at the end of the first half), and 27 versus Connecticut in the semis. In the NCAA regional, he scored 24 in the loss, but held Jeff McInnis to 1 for 8 shooting. By season's end, Allen Iverson had been named Big East Player of the Week nine times, Rookie of the Year, a second team all-conference selection, and honorable mention All-America recipient. Having led the Hoyas in points and steals en route to the school's first NCAA regional appearance since 1989, Iverson was already a star. By 1996, he would become nothing less than a sensation.

The leaser of a talented team that featured four future NBA stars, Allen Iverson dominated the 1995-96 season as no Hoya has done before or since. Adept at the crossover dribble that became his NBA trademark, lightning quick to the basket, and able to score on opponents at will, Iverson was largely unstoppable. Even more impressive was an effort to improve his shooting touch, for despite averaging 20.4 points as a freshman in 1994-95 (2nd all time for a Georgetown rookie), Iverson only shot 39 percent from the field, 23 percent from three, and 19 percent from three in Big East play. For his sophomore season, his field shooting increased to 48 percent, his three point mark to 36 percent. The results were striking.

In the pre-season NIT versus Temple, Iverson shot 50 percent for 24 points and a career high 10 rebounds. After a 23 point effort against Georgia Tech, he scored a career high 40 against Arizona, one of two 40+ point games that season. In Big East play, Iverson could ring up points with ease, such as the game where he scored 21 points in only 20 minutes against Rutgers.

In the final three months of the season, Iverson led the team in 21 of the team's 25 games: 40 against Seton Hall, 39 against St. John's, 34 against Providence. He scored 30 in a wild win over Memphis, and followed it up two nights later with 26 in an upset of #3 Connecticut. For the game, Iverson totalled 26 points, 8 steals, and 6 assists, including a soaring dunk past Ray Allen and the Huskies. It was the highest ranked team any Georgetown team had defeated since 1988. His best performance of the season might have been a 37 point, 8 rebound, and three steal effort against #6 ranked Villanova, playing only 27 minutes. The 106-68 win represents the sixth largest margin of victory and the largest margin ever by a Georgetown team against a top 10 opponent.

Iverson was capable of an off game; unfortunately, two came at particularly inopportune times for the Hoyas' hopes for a national title. Entering the 1996 Big East Final with a #1 seed on the line, Iverson shot 4 for 15 and the Hoyas lost by one, 76-75. As a result of the loss, Georgetown was seeded #2 behind top ranked UMass, and in the regional final between the two teams Iverson struggled with a 6 for 21 effort in the loss. For the season, though, his statistics were astonishing: his 926 points broke the then-record by 124 points. He set new single season marks in field goals, field goal attempts, three pointers, three point attempts, steals, minutes, and scoring average (25.0), the latter of which ranked 7th in the nation that season. The Big East's defensive player of the year, he was named a consensus All-American amidst numerous other awards.

If he could somehow have stayed four years, Iverson undoubtedly would have shredded the Georgetown record books. But whatever hopes existed for Iverson to resist the lure of the NBA were short lived, particularly with the news that one of his sisters had fallen ill. Seeing the opportunity to take care of his family's medical needs, Iverson announced for the NBA draft soon after the end of his sophomore season, becoming the first Georgetown player in the Thompson era to do so. The compact that had bound so many great Hoya players to a four year commitment--from Ewing to Williams, Mourning to Mutombo--had now been broken.

The first pick in the 1996 NBA draft, Iverson signed a $3.9 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers and a ten year, $50 million deal with Reebok. His effort on the court is well known and respected, but for all the media portrayals of Iverson as the anti-hero, an icon of a "Hip Hop Nation" that ran counter to the NBA's carefully constructed marketing image, or as a symbol of all that is allegedly wrong in professional basketball, he remains remarkably well-grounded.

Married for six years and the father of two, Iverson is fiercely loyal to his teammates and to his childhood friends. He considered it an honor to play for the U.S. Olympic team in 2004 when other NBA stars passed on the offer, and maintains a number of charity events to benefit his local community. In comparison to his NBA career, his years at Georgetown were largely free of the intense media and personal scrutiny, providing at least two years where he could grow as a person as well as a basketball player.

His arrival and exit at Georgetown is still a source of debate in some circles, but his performance on the court is not. Allen Iverson found a home, even briefly, at the Hilltop, and remains one of its brightest stars. "In my heart, I know I'm a basketball player," Iverson said following his 2006 NBA trade, "being that I know I can play with the best of them."

From that first Kenner League game on 1994, no one has doubted it since.

For those who were there at McDonough Gymnasium on August 4, 1994, few will forget the arrival of a 6-0 freshman guard who needed no introduction. The rumors of Allen Iverson's arrival to the Kenner Summer League were true, and by game's end, Iverson had scored 40 points. By the Sunday afternoon final, before an overflow crowd inside the gym and a crowd of those outside who could not get in, Iverson finished a combined 99 point effort in three days against some of the best collegiate talent in the city. This, of course, from a player that had not played organized basketball in over a year.

The Allen Iverson years had begun.

A brief profile can't do justice to tell the story of one of the greatest pure athletes ever to attend Georgetown, a man without peer in his talent over two years at the collegiate level. Just a year before his Kenner debut, few would have imagined Allen Iverson ever playing college basketball.

Iverson was not only a 31 point a game guard for Bethel HS, but a football player of tremendous skill. As a quarterback and defensive back his sophomore season, he produced nearly 1,600 yards offense and 13 INT's. By his junior year, he accounted for 2,204 yards, 21 touchdowns by rush or interception, and 14 touchdown passes. In a region which has produced NFL quarterbacks such as Michael Vick and Aaron Brooks, there are those who will still say "Bubbachuck" Iverson was better than both of them. Schools such as Arkansas, Kentucky, Duke, and three dozen other top programs across two sports were vying for perhaps the greatest two-sport star the Tidewater had ever produced.

When he led Bethel to the state title, someone asked what it was like to win the title. "I'm going to get one in basketball now," which he did. In late February, 1993, en route to the state title he had promised, Iverson was one of a large group of Bethel teammates at a Hampton bowling alley when a fight broke out between students from rival schools trading racial insults. Three people were hurt in the aftermath. Despite conflicting testimony from eyewitnesses and no clear evidence linking him to the crime, Iverson was one of four black students arrested.

Racial tensions were heightened when the prosecutors passed on a misdemeanor assault charge and charged Iverson with three counts of felony "maiming by mob", which carried a 20 year prison sentence. Despite video evidence which did not place Iverson in the crowd at the time of the fight, he was convicted in a racially charged case.

The 20 year sentence was later reduced to five, and Iverson was granted clemency by Gov. Douglas Wilder three months later, sending Iverson to a detention program at an alternative high school. (The original charges were thrown out by the Virginia court of appeals in 1995.)

In the spring of 1994, with Iverson still in detention, his mother approached John Thompson with a plea to help her son get to college and start a new chapter of his life. Though Thompson had passed on a number of troubled players in the past, he offered Iverson a scholarship in April of that season, contingent upon his completion of high school and his legal release, which was granted 48 hours before his Kenner debut.

By his debut in a Georgetown uniform in November 1994, Iverson had been the subject of intense national media attention. In the Hoyas' annual exhibition with Fort Hood, Iverson scored 36 points, five assists, and three steals in 23 minutes. Local columnists were in awe.

"Hang his number up in the rafters," wrote Tom Knott of the Washington Times. "He's better than most of the point guards in the NBA right now."

"I saw Lew Alcindor, Austin Carr, Moses Malone, Alonzo Mourning, Albert King, Ralph Sampson and Patrick Ewing play in high school," said the Post's Thomas Boswell. "Now, I have two memories on my first impression top shelf. The man who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Allen Iverson."

Iverson opened the 1994-95 season in Memphis, TN in a 97-79 loss to defending NCAA champion Arkansas, scoring 19 points. Six days later, he scored 31 in a nationally televised game with DePaul, followed by 30 four days later against Providence, leading the team in scoring 22 times that season. His only game under double figures for the season (and his career) was a game where he played only ten minutes in a loss at Villanova, a game Georgetown coach John Thompson threatened to forfeit when a group of Villanova students paraded through the Spectrum in black and white-striped prison garb, with a sign comparing Iverson to O.J. Simpson.

"You accept certain ribbing, but there is a line," Thompson said after the game. "I can condone any Christian university sitting and watching that happen...If that happens [again], I going to walk. It that simple." Such fan behavior was not seen thereafter.

Later in the season, with President Bill Clinton in attendance, Iverson scored 26 as the Hoyas routed Villanova, 77-52. He followed it up with 21 to beat Syracuse, 28 versus St. John's, 31 in a Big East tournament opener with Miami (a game that saw Iverson outscore the entire Hurricane team at the end of the first half), and 27 versus Connecticut in the semis. In the NCAA regional, he scored 24 in the loss, but held Jeff McInnis to 1 for 8 shooting. By season's end, Allen Iverson had been named Big East Player of the Week nine times, Rookie of the Year, a second team all-conference selection, and honorable mention All-America recipient. Having led the Hoyas in points and steals en route to the school's first NCAA regional appearance since 1989, Iverson was already a star. By 1996, he would become nothing less than a sensation.

The leaser of a talented team that featured four future NBA stars, Allen Iverson dominated the 1995-96 season as no Hoya has done before or since. Adept at the crossover dribble that became his NBA trademark, lightning quick to the basket, and able to score on opponents at will, Iverson was largely unstoppable. Even more impressive was an effort to improve his shooting touch, for despite averaging 20.4 points as a freshman in 1994-95 (2nd all time for a Georgetown rookie), Iverson only shot 39 percent from the field, 23 percent from three, and 19 percent from three in Big East play. For his sophomore season, his field shooting increased to 48 percent, his three point mark to 36 percent. The results were striking.

In the pre-season NIT versus Temple, Iverson shot 50 percent for 24 points and a career high 10 rebounds. After a 23 point effort against Georgia Tech, he scored a career high 40 against Arizona, one of two 40+ point games that season. In Big East play, Iverson could ring up points with ease, such as the game where he scored 21 points in only 20 minutes against Rutgers.

In the final three months of the season, Iverson led the team in 21 of the team's 25 games: 40 against Seton Hall, 39 against St. John's, 34 against Providence. He scored 30 in a wild win over Memphis, and followed it up two nights later with 26 in an upset of #3 Connecticut. For the game, Iverson totalled 26 points, 8 steals, and 6 assists, including a soaring dunk past Ray Allen and the Huskies. It was the highest ranked team any Georgetown team had defeated since 1988. His best performance of the season might have been a 37 point, 8 rebound, and three steal effort against #6 ranked Villanova, playing only 27 minutes. The 106-68 win represents the sixth largest margin of victory and the largest margin ever by a Georgetown team against a top 10 opponent.

Iverson was capable of an off game; unfortunately, two came at particularly inopportune times for the Hoyas' hopes for a national title. Entering the 1996 Big East Final with a #1 seed on the line, Iverson shot 4 for 15 and the Hoyas lost by one, 76-75. As a result of the loss, Georgetown was seeded #2 behind top ranked UMass, and in the regional final between the two teams Iverson struggled with a 6 for 21 effort in the loss. For the season, though, his statistics were astonishing: his 926 points broke the then-record by 124 points. He set new single season marks in field goals, field goal attempts, three pointers, three point attempts, steals, minutes, and scoring average (25.0), the latter of which ranked 7th in the nation that season. The Big East's defensive player of the year, he was named a consensus All-American amidst numerous other awards.

If he could somehow have stayed four years, Iverson undoubtedly would have shredded the Georgetown record books. But whatever hopes existed for Iverson to resist the lure of the NBA were short lived, particularly with the news that one of his sisters had fallen ill. Seeing the opportunity to take care of his family's medical needs, Iverson announced for the NBA draft soon after the end of his sophomore season, becoming the first Georgetown player in the Thompson era to do so. The compact that had bound so many great Hoya players to a four year commitment--from Ewing to Williams, Mourning to Mutombo--had now been broken.

The first pick in the 1996 NBA draft, Iverson signed a $3.9 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers and a ten year, $50 million deal with Reebok. His effort on the court is well known and respected, but for all the media portrayals of Iverson as the anti-hero, an icon of a "Hip Hop Nation" that ran counter to the NBA's carefully constructed marketing image, or as a symbol of all that is allegedly wrong in professional basketball, he remains remarkably well-grounded.

Married for six years and the father of two, Iverson is fiercely loyal to his teammates and to his childhood friends. He considered it an honor to play for the U.S. Olympic team in 2004 when other NBA stars passed on the offer, and maintains a number of charity events to benefit his local community. In comparison to his NBA career, his years at Georgetown were largely free of the intense media and personal scrutiny, providing at least two years where he could grow as a person as well as a basketball player.

His arrival and exit at Georgetown is still a source of debate in some circles, but his performance on the court is not. Allen Iverson found a home, even briefly, at the Hilltop, and remains one of its brightest stars. "In my heart, I know I'm a basketball player," Iverson said following his 2006 NBA trade, "being that I know I can play with the best of them."

From that first Kenner League game on 1994, no one has doubted it since.