Only the Strong Survive: The Odyssey of Allen Iverson
by: Larry Platt

Hardcover. NY, Regan Books, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 259 pages, b&w photos. There were few figures among America's media-saturated landscape that loomed larger than the National Basketball Association's undeniable superstar Allen Iverson. He was the first overall pick of the 1996 NBA draft, and the spotlight never left him since. Defiantly tattooed, with his hair in cornrows, the six-foot Philadelphia 76ers point guard was been vilified by a sports press still fawning over Michael Jordan's non-threatening, clean-cut visage. From Iverson's rap sheet to his rap album, from his on-court feats to his off-court antics, breathless fans and journalists alike seem determined to track his every move. Part sports star, part antihero, part hip-hop icon, Iverson managed to cross over into the mainstream of American culture -- without compromise. Clean copy.