Player Spotlight: Anthony Carter

If you were to pick the perfect guy to play alongside Allen Iverson, you’d for sure have a guy who is a) Not a willing participant in offensive forays (too technical?), b) A guy who can merely dribble the ball over half-court and pass to either wing, and c) A guy who can guard both guard spots well.

Sounds simple, right? Well, it hasn’t always been that way.

History has taught us a helluva lot when looking at the guys AI has played with.

Believe me, his first lab partner, Jerry Stackhouse, was never going to play well next to the rookie Iverson. Everyone said they’d need two basketballs to survive; everyone was right. Stack lasted one full season, plus two months into a second, before heading to Detroit.

There was a lot of scoring, a lot of frustrated yet highly capable teammates who were shut out, a whole bunch of losing, and even a car park rumble between, as the story went, “Stack’s guys” and “Iverson’s guys.” When asked about it, Stack said it was a fight between “guys who didn’t want to fight, and guys who didn’t know how to fight.” Which one was he?

Then Philly drafted Larry Hughes in ‘98, and the “Flight Bros” (as dubbed by the best in the play-by-play biz – Marc Zumoff) were born. These guys perhaps would’ve been better in aviation, designing planes or something, than on a basketball court.

Then there’s the greener grass, the guys who succeeded alongside AI, or better yet, the guys who allowed AI to form into this 70-inch shooting guard we have come to know and (on occasion) love: Eric Snow (most notably), Kevin Ollie (at times), Steve Blake (last year) and (currently) Anthony Carter.

Just an opinion, but I think Carter has been alongside AI during perhaps the best stretch of his career. During the first few weeks of the season when Carter (and Chucky Atkins) were out, AI had to shoulder a lot of the ball-handling which took a lot of energy - something this guy has a lot of anyway – to do.

Sure enough, Carter comes back, and within a week Iverson goes absolutely freaking ballistic offensively (29.3 ppg in their first full month together, up from 23.6 in a month spent mostly without Carter), including a 51-point doozy on the Lakers.

And Carter’s not one of those guys who your going to knock people over to draft in your fantasy league. But he’s hard-nosed, he’s a very good defender (in last week’s game against Phoenix, he positioned himself against Nash as well as anyone has), and he can also hit shots over the backboard. (Sorry, Miami Heat 2000 playoff flashback there – and how can this not be on YouTube? Does anyone remember this shot/game?).

Also: Carter needs to start ahead of Chucky Atkins for the simple reason that Atkins is a gunner who would be far better suited playing against other second-teams because he’s a scorer first and foremost.