When Jerome Williams met Allen Iverson for the first time

Former Raptor Jerome Williams tells the story about the first time he met the legendary Allen Iverson. Listen to the full interview on the ‘Raptors Over Everything’ podcast feed or watch on our Yahoo Sports Canada YouTube page.

Video Transcript

BEN CARLOS: So what can you tell me about the Kenner League Championship game and who did you meet for the first time sitting on the bleachers in the gym?

JEROME WILLIAMS: Yeah, that guy. That guy, you know, go way back. We were roommates at Georgetown, and his name's Allen Iverson. This guy. I remember coming into the gym and Coach letting me know, hey, did-- Well first, coming into the gym and seeing this little short guy on the bench. And sort of just, he was just by himself in the gym sitting down. I waved to him. He waved back.

And I go upstairs to see Coach and he says, hey, did you see Allen downstairs and say hello to him? I said, Allen who? He's like, Allen Iverson. And I said, Allen Iverson is downstairs? And he's like, you didn't see him when you came in? And I was like, no. I mean, I saw some little guy down there. He's like, that's Allen. I was like, that's Allen Iverson? The guy that's dunking from the foul line and you know heroic all-star NBA type things on the court. And he's like, yeah. I just tilted my head and I was like, I got to see this, right? I got to.

So I go back down, introduce myself, hey Allen, what's happening? OK. Look forward to playing with you tonight, right. Leave the gym. Now, go do my normal pre-game rest or whatever I was doing. And then a few hours later, you know because we always show up like hour and a half, or what have you, early to get a warm up. We had our back gym behind McDonough, like where the fans were. We had a little gym in the back. We could get warmed up. So I'm like, all right, I can get there. It's championship, it's playoff time I got to get it right.

I show up to the gym and the parking lot is full. There's a line outside and I'm saying to myself, are they here to see me? I'm like, no, they're not here to see me. They're here to see Allen Iverson. I'm like, holy-- I'm like, what in the world. Like, I mean, we had good, you know, fan base when I was playing that summer and it did get pretty packed. But this was a different kind of packed because there wasn't a line outside, right? The gym would get packed as we would play, but this was different. And I knew it was different, so that first game I'm like kind of really excited. I'm excited for him. I'm like, dang, you know, he hasn't played in like two years. He hasn't even played basketball, right? So I'm like, man, he's going to be a little rusty. A, I mean B, there's a lot of people here.

Now, I've been averaging like 25 and 15, right? But I'm like, I want to see what he can do. And man, from the opening tip, the first play, right, tips the ball. We tip the ball. Allen gets it and the crowd just starts this whoa. Like it's this build up. And he literally takes two dribbles and takes like, from now, we call it the logo shot, where somebody is touching part of the logo in the center of the court. He pulls up at the logo spot and the crowd goes whoa and the ball goes in and out and comes out, right? And they're like aw. I'm like, aw? He pulled up from the logo. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. I'm like inside, I'm saying to myself, well, what are we doing? What am I missing? Right, what am I missing? Does he normally make these shots?

So we come down. We play defense. I get the rebound, right? And normally, I mean, I'm like Point Guard, so normally, I just take it and go do what I do. I said, hmm. Here you go, Allen.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

Again, the crowd gets into this whoa. He comes down, pulls up from the same spot, cash. Yeah! It was like-- and I was sitting there like, oh, this is where he shoot from? I was like, oh, we're going to-- I was just sitting there, like this big smile came on my face. I'm like, oh we're going to be good, right?

And then he begins to just do his thing. Throwing no look passes, underhands this. Gym's going crazy. Shooting 3's, pulling up from the parking lot, baseline shots, mid-range dunks down the middle. It was insane. When I say insane, it was insane. Shout out to my brother Bubba Chuck, Allen Iverson. He's the GOAT, right? He is the top 75 player in the NBA. Pound for pound the number one baddest dude on the planet.