A carousel of fans rotates past Allen Iverson, who jokes casually with star-struck, merch-clad devotees as his team marches them on.
Some carry drawings they have done of him, others mix tapes, and others stories of what the NBA legend has meant to them — all offered up like tributes to a king.
“Yo man, how are tall are you?” he asks one kid who has already filed past.
Allen Iverson was in Perth for the NBL’s ‘Hoopsfest’. (ABC News: Bridget McArthur)
“Um, five-five,” he said after being called back.
Iverson nods and shakes the boy’s hand, turning back just in time to pose with the next kid who gets propelled onward.
A queue of over 500 people snaked out of the door of the streetwear shop that had organised the meet-and-greet, stretching hundreds of metres down the road.
Plenty of people turned out to meet the NBA great. (ABC News: Bridget McArthur)
Some had travelled from interstate to see Iverson, who is in Perth for Hoopsfest at the invitation, and significant investment, of the NBL — attending a handful of games and taking the obligatory celebrity tour of Rottnest Island.
The cheapest ticket for a “photo opportunity” with the 50-year-old, who will be engaging in similar events in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, costs $149.
‘Culture carrier’
Nicknamed ‘The Answer’, the 11-time NBA All-Star rose to mega-fame in the 1990s and is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, as well as being an icon of sport fashion.
His zenith came in the 2000-01 NBA season, where he took his Philadelphia 76ers side all the way to the NBA finals, and was crowned league MVP.
Allen Iverson during the NBA finals series in 2001, where they lost out to the star-studded LA Lakers. (Getty Images: Manny Millan/Sports Illustrated)
Goldie Thandi, who grew up watching him play, paid $350 for a photo with him and a signed basketball — though some paid as much as $700 to get a hand-signed jersey.
Thandi said it was “priceless”.
“Honestly it was frikkin’ awesome because he was like ‘love your drip bro, you’re on fire’,” he said.
“I kind of was looking around and was like ‘what the actual’, it was a dumbstruck moment for me.
Goldie Thandi and Ashlea Tuxford were beaming after their meeting with the star. (ABC News: Bridget McArthur)
“He’s just a culture carrier.”
A relatively new convert to Iverson fandom, Gus Green’s mum got him the ticket to encourage his basketball obsession.
“I’ve been watching some clips of his best top hits and there were some really good moves,” Gus said.
Gus Green and his mum were delighted to grab an autograph from an NBA legend. (ABC News: Bridget McArthur)
“He seems like a really nice person … we got in and had a photo, I tried to ask him three quick questions but I got moved on.
“I was going to ask if I can one v one him.”
All-Star meets Australia’s MVP
Also meeting his idol for the first time was American NBL star, and five-time league MVP, Bryce Cotton.
But it was Iverson who was full of praise.
“Five-time MVP bro? … I don’t have to tell you nothing but keep going,” he tells the Adelaide 36er, formerly of the Perth Wildcats.
Fans of all ages got a buzz from the superstar. (ABC News: Bridget McArthur)
The 33-year-old — currently in the middle of his own meteoric rise — has just returned from meeting some of his own young fans in Rockingham.
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But he looked just as star-struck as the meet-and-greet crowd, faced with the intimidating task of making this single moment reflect just how much Iverson has meant to him over his career.
Cotton, who is the same height as Iverson, said he was always told he was “too small” to play.
Watching Iverson get drafted to the NBA as the shortest ever number one pick gave him hope.
“[In] fourth grade … we’d go up to the park and we’d have like the big-ass socks that go to your knees, and we’d cut it off, put it on our arms, because you couldn’t buy arm sleeves back then,” he told Iverson, who berated him — mostly jokingly — for making him feel old.
“We used to do a bunch of creative stuff just to mimic you but yeah, to have a full circle moment, finally meet you, it’s been a long time coming,” Cotton said.
Even NBL great Bryce Cotton was a little star struck in the presence of Allen Iverson. (Supplied: NBL)
It was also a full-circle moment for Iverson, who reflected earlier in the week on the role Michael Jordan had played in his own career, saying it was an honour to know he had had a similar impact on the next generation.
“The only advice I have for you man, as somebody who’s been there and did it for as long as I’ve done it — man, enjoy the moment,” he told Cotton.
“Don’t take it for granted because it goes by so fast … the stories is what keeps it alive.”
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