Did Allen Iverson blow $154 million in career earnings?

Did Allen Iverson blow $154 million in career earnings? By Tom Weir, USA TODAY Updated 16h 23m ago Allen Iverson, playing for the 76ers in 2010, during his last NBA stop CAPTIONBy Ron Chenoy, US PRESSWIREThe story of Allen Iverson's financial downfall has been circulating for a few days now, after a judge ruled the former NBA star's checking account can be tapped for the $860,000 he owes but hasn't paid to a jeweler. If Iverson is severely on the financial ropes it doesn't exactly come as a shock. After all, if a player with estimated career earnings of $154 million had taken care of his cash would he really have dragged out his playing days in Turkey, as Iverson did? Among those who aren't surprised by speculation that Iverson is broke is former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Bill Lyon, who had a front-row view of some of AI's excesses when he broke into the NBA with the 76ers. Lyon, writing for Philly.com, gives this description of Iverson's posse: Their numbers varied day to day, week to week, most of them from the old neighborhood in Virginia. There might be as many as 50 for tickets to a home game. There was a hair stylist who traveled, did his corn rows two to three times a week. Also this, on Iverson's affection for jewelry: There were excursions to see the Ice Man, whose handiwork included a platinum pendant made in the shape of a '3' as a tribute to A.I.'s jersey number, with 63 diamonds embedded on it. You could land airplanes on it. It was worn on a gold chain, by A.I.'s mother, Ann. As for why Iverson paid out to keep all the hangers-on in tow, Lyon says Iverson once told him that: "They made me." He meant they had protected him from all of the casual violence, especially in the early days, allowing him to get where he was. Literally, they kept him alive. And he owed them. One night, during the playoffs, in a hotel suite darker than a coal mine at midnight, you saw the depth of his debt: There were bodies everywhere in that suite, all the furniture occupied, the floor, too, the snoring rivaling a 747 takeoff. It was the Posse and assorted hangers-on and remoras, and this thought struck you: It may take a village to raise a child, but in A.I.'s case it has been the other way around. And perhaps now we're seeing the bottom line of what it all meant.