關於 st john university ，我們在網路上蒐集到這些相關的討論、資訊與評價

［時事英文］彩券是一種窮人稅 (a tax on the poor)？
　
最近看到多家媒體報導鼓勵大家支持「公益」彩券，就聯想到之前看過的一些彩券報導。雖然每個國家的彩券發行的法律、收益的分紅和管理規範都不盡相同，還是可以參考以下美國多家知名報社關於美國彩券的社論。根據西方的經驗，購買彩券的人大多是低收入戶，他們將微薄的收入用來買「公益」彩券，窮人的錢成為彩券的主要財源，因此，公益彩券反而像變相的「窮人稅」。彩券是否如迷幻藥般，使部分窮人更窮？值得大家深思。
　
從社會與心理層面看臺灣「樂透瘋」公聽會：https://bit.ly/30W6mpJ

★★★★★★★★★★★★
　
The lottery is a particularly awful example of political corruption. Here government is raising revenue by selling the Powerball dream of wealth without work. Studies in a number of states have shown that lottery ticket sales are concentrated in poor communities, that poor people spend a larger portion of their income on tickets and that the poor are more likely to view the lottery as an investment.
　
1. political corruption 政治腐敗
2. raise revenue 提高收入
3. Powerball 威力球（美國境內發行的彩券）
4. dream of wealth 財富的夢想
5. more likely to 更傾向於
　
彩券是政治腐敗的一個特別可怕的例子。政府藉由兜售威力球一夜致富的夢來增加國家的稅收。許多州的研究表明，彩券的銷售集中在貧困社區，窮人將多數收入花在彩券上，而窮人更傾向於將彩券視為一種投資。
　
——《華盛頓郵報》
　
★★★★★★★★★★★★
　
Lotteries are regressive taxes on poor people, in that a ticket costs relatively more for a poor person than a rich person, and punitive taxes on the poor and uneducated people who are the most avid buyers. The people who can least afford it are throwing away on average 47 cents on the dollar every time they buy a ticket. And the government, which relies increasingly on the lottery for funding, goes out of its way to tell them it is a good idea.
　
6. relatively more 相對更多
7. most avid buyers 最狂熱的買家
8. go out of one’s way（特別是為其他人）非常努力地做
9. punitive taxes 懲罰性賦稅
　
彩券是對窮人的累退稅，也是對那些醉心於購買且未受過教育的窮人之懲罰性賦稅。因為與富人相比，買彩券所付出的成本對窮人而言相對較高。那些負擔得起彩券的人，平均每次要花４７美分購買彩券。政府愈來愈依賴彩券來籌措資金，並竭盡全力告訴他們這是個好主意。
　
——《商業內幕》
　
★★★★★★★★★★★★
　
What if I told you there was a $70 billion tax that the poor pay the most. You'd probably say that isn't very fair. But that's exactly what the lottery is: an almost 12-figure tax on the desperation of the least fortunate. To put that in perspective, that's $300 worth of lottery tickets for every adult every year. Researchers have found that the bottom third of households buy more than half of all tickets. So that means households making less than $28,000 a year are dishing out $450 a year on lotteries.
　
10. a 12-figure tax 一個１２位數的稅
11. the least fortunate 最不幸的
12. worth of… 值得⋯
13. dish out 祭出；拿出
14. What if...? 如果（尤指糟糕的情況出現）會怎麼樣？
　
如果我告訴你，在７００億美元的稅收中窮人付出的最多，你會怎麼想？你可能會說這不太公平。但這就是彩券：對最不幸者的絕望徵收近１２位數的稅。從這個角度來看，那對每位成年人來說是每年價值３００美元的彩券。研究人員發現，最底層的三分之一家庭所購買的彩票超過總數的一半。這意味著年收入不足兩萬八千美元的家庭，每年要花４５０美元來買彩券。
　
——《華盛頓郵報》
　
★★★★★★★★★★★★
　
Historical data implies that when the economy goes bad, lottery revenues go up, because "when people are feeling desperate, they are more likely to stop by the gas station and buy five lottery tickets, hoping they get a big windfall.”
　
15. historical data 歷史數據
16. feel desperate 感到絕望
17. get a big windfall 獲得巨額、意外的收穫
　
歷史數據表明，每當經濟不景氣，彩券收入會增加，因為「每當人們感到絕望，他們更有可能在加油站前停下來，買五張彩券，並希望自己能獲得巨額的財富。」
　
——《ＡＢＣ新聞》
　
★★★★★★★★★★★★
　
In 2008, during the height of the recession, at least 22 of the 42 states with lotteries — including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut — set sales records.
　
18. height of the recession 經濟衰退的高點
19. set sales record 創下銷售記錄
　
２００８年，時值經濟衰退的谷底，在４２個有賣彩券的州中，至少有２２個州——包括紐約州、紐澤西州和康乃狄克州——創下銷售記錄。
　
——《紐約時報》
　
★★★★★★★★★★★★
　
Lotteries are sometimes criticized as a "de facto tax on the poor," according to Matheson. "The poor spend a much higher percentage of their overall income on lotteries than the rich, and they can afford it less," he said. John Spry, a finance professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, has also studied the economic disparity among people who play instant scratch-off games. About three out of four instant game tickets sold in Minnesota are purchased by people with below-average incomes, according to Spry. He also cites research that shows that in South Carolina, 60% of instant lottery tickets were purchased by people with very low incomes.
　
20. a de facto tax on the poor 一種對窮人的實質賦稅
21. overall income 總收入
22. economic disparity 經濟差異；經濟失衡（國際法名詞）
23. below-average incomes 低於平均水準的所得
　
按馬特森所言，彩券有時被批評為「對窮人的實質賦稅」。他說：「窮人在彩券上的花費占總收入的比例遠比富人高出許多，而他們所能負擔的也更少。」明尼蘇達州聖湯瑪斯大學的財金系教授約翰・斯普里也研究了玩即時刮刮樂的人之間的經濟差異。根據斯普里的說法，在明尼蘇達州售出的四張即時刮刮樂中，約有三張是由收入低於平均水準的人購買。他還引用了一項研究，該研究表明，在南卡羅來納有６０％的即時彩券是被收入很低的人買走。
　
——《ＣＮＮ》
　
★★★★★★★★★★★★
　
Think on this a moment. In a place where government has utterly failed to provide adequate education and public services, government is using advertising to exploit the desperation of poor people in order to raise revenue that funds other people’s public services. This is often called a “regressive” form of taxation. The word does not adequately capture the cruelty and crookedness of selling a lie to vulnerable people in order to bilk them. Offering the chance of one in a 100 million is the equivalent of a lie. Lotteries depend on the deceptive encouragement of mythical thinking and fantasies of escape.
　
24. utterly fail to 徹底地失敗
25. fail to provide 無法提供
26. adequate education and public services 充分的教育與公共服務
27. exploit the desperation of poor people 利用窮人的絕望
28. fund public services 資助公共服務
29. a regressive form of taxation 一種累退的賦稅形式
30. sell a lie 兜售一個謊言
31. vulnerable people 弱勢群體
32. mythical thinking 不切實際的想像
33. fantasy of escape 逃避的幻想
　
試想一下，在政府完全無法提供足夠的教育與公共服務的地方，為了提高國家稅收以資助他人的公共服務，政府正運用廣告來利用窮人的絕望。這通常被稱作「累退」的賦稅形式。這個詞並未充分體現出，政府為了欺騙弱勢群體，向他們兜售謊言此一殘酷與奸詐。提供億分之一的機會即形同說謊。彩券所仰賴的是不切實際與逃避現實的幻想，帶有欺騙性的鼓勵。
　
——《華盛頓郵報》
　
★★★★★★★★★★★★
　
Some policymakers argue that the moral cost of lotteries is low. After all, the games are voluntary. And perhaps the money collected by the state is better off going to schools than to booze and cigarettes and whatever else. In an age of rising income inequality, it’s pernicious that states rely on monetizing the desperate hope of its poorest residents. State lotteries take from the poor to spare the rich, all while marching under the banner of voluntary entertainment. Banning lotto games will not make our poorest communities suddenly rich. But these neighborhoods have lost enough lotteries in life even before they touch a penny to the scratch-off ticket.
　
34. moral cost 道德成本
35. be better off 境況更好；經濟狀況較先前（或多數人）好
36. rising income inequality日益加劇的所得不均
37. take from the poor to spare the rich 劫貧濟富
38. under the banner of 以⋯⋯的名義；在⋯⋯的旗幟下
39. voluntary entertainment 自願性娛樂
40. a scratch-off ticket 一張刮刮樂
　
有些制定政策的人認為，彩券的道德成本很低。畢竟，那些都是自願的博弈。而且，由州政府收取資金並將之用於各級學校，也許比用在喝酒、抽菸或其他東西上都來得好。在一個所得不均日益加劇的時代，各州將貧困居民僅存的希望貨幣化，無疑是有害的。國家彩券劫貧濟富，以自願性娛樂的名義推進。禁止博彩遊戲並不會讓我們最貧窮的社區突然變得富有。但這些社區甚至連刮刮樂的一毛錢都沒贏過，卻已眼睜睜輸掉數量可觀的彩券。
　
——《大西洋》
　
★★★★★★★★★★★★
　
今政府開辦之彩券販售，雖係有法令依據的合法行為，其販售權力也優先給予殘障弱勢者，每年所獲盈餘也多用在公益事業或挹注部分運動項目，不可謂沒有功勞。但整體而論；彩券是藉公益之名，慷民眾之慨以補政府的不足，彩券盈餘所挹注的公益項目，都是政府原本就應照顧的族群，不應等待民眾簽注的盈餘才來做這些事。
　
——立法院第8屆第2會期第2次會議紀錄

https://bit.ly/2EkkktK
　
★★★★★★★★★★★★
　
國內運動彩券之評析: https://www.npf.org.tw/3/5099

圖片出處: https://bit.ly/2P11l9L
　
★★★★★★★★★★★★
　
參考資料：
　
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/refusing-t0-cheat-the-poor/2015/07/09/78154b9a-2670-11e5-aae2-6c4f59b050aa_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.55b

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/refusing-t0-cheat-the-poor/2015/07/09/78154b9a-2670-11e5-aae2-6c4f59b050aa_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.55bf29a1f446

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/lotteries-americas-70-billion-shame/392870/

http://www.businessinsider.com/lottery-is-a-tax-on-the-poor-2012-4

http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/12/news/companies/powerball-lottery-games-poor/index.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/lotteries-americas-70-billion-shame/392870/

Good morning people from here in New York. Pagi ini dan the next few days Abang ada kuliah di Columbia Business School. Hari ini tak pakai topi walaupun dalam kehidupan kita ini kita perlu “pakai” banyak topi... Abang kena pakai topi student untuk habiskan Management program Columbia Business School @columbia_biz walaupun baru graduate Senior Management Program @kelloggschool, Abang nak kena habiskan satu lagi MBA dalam Coaching Mentoring & Leadership York St John University UK @yorkstjohn , Abang nak kena habiskan Doctorate In Business Administration (Business Coaching & Mentoring) dengan Swiss Business School @sbs_swissbusinessschool , Abang juga nak kena handle banyak sesi business coaching & consulting dengan usahawan-usahawan #gangtitan dan pantau #spirecircle Abang juga nak handle investment portfolio Abang dan Business, Abang juga ada topi sebagai Anak, Suami, Father, Brother, nak jadi hamba Tuhan lagi@dan banyak lagi topi yang perlu dipakai serta berubah ikut keadaaan..... Sebab tu Abang tidak ada masa nak membawamg hal Susu sesiapa, hal parti mana, sibuk hal artis mana buat apa, PU siapa kawin berapa macam ramai orang lain... Abang bukan tak kisah tapi tak nak ambil kisah sebab ia bukan urusan Abang... Banyak lagi urusan Abang perlu dilakukan dan mudah-mudahan dapat sedikit sebanyak bermanfaat kepada orang keliling Abang.... Hidup ini kurangkan kaypoh hal orang yang tak menyumbang pun kepada kehidupan kita..... Dan akan ada orang suka kita dan akan ada orang yang tidak kenal kita atau tidak tahu apa perjuangan kita yang akan tidak suka kita tanpa sebab.... Tapi itu semua tak penting... Apa yang penting? Kita sendiri suka tak dengan apa yang kita lakukan dan bermanfaat tak untuk diri, keluarga dan ramai orang lain yang kita boleh beri manfaat.... Alhamdulillah selepas 21-tahun dalam pelbagai jenis business dan sekarang active investor, Abang syukur dengan hidup Abang.... Abang rindu dengan Mak Abang, Isteri, Anak2, Keluarga dan semua di Malaysia tapi Abang tahu... Inilah namanya Perjuangan. Perjuangan untuk memuliakan bangsa Abang... Dengan cara Abang... Bina lebih ramai usahawan dan jutawan yang kaya dunia akhirat Insha Allah! Sorry panjang sikit..🤣🤣

Good morning people from here in New York. Pagi ini dan the next few days Abang ada kuliah di Columbia Business School. Hari ini tak pakai topi walaupun dalam kehidupan kita ini kita perlu “pakai” banyak topi... Abang kena pakai topi student untuk habiskan Management program Columbia Business School @columbia_biz walaupun baru graduate Senior Management Program @kelloggschool, Abang nak kena habiskan satu lagi MBA dalam Coaching Mentoring & Leadership York St John University UK @yorkstjohn , Abang nak kena habiskan Doctorate In Business Administration (Business Coaching & Mentoring) dengan Swiss Business School @sbs_swissbusinessschool , Abang juga nak kena handle banyak sesi business coaching & consulting dengan usahawan-usahawan #gangtitan dan pantau #spirecircle Abang juga nak handle investment portfolio Abang dan Business, Abang juga ada topi sebagai Anak, Suami, Father, Brother, nak jadi hamba Tuhan lagi@dan banyak lagi topi yang perlu dipakai serta berubah ikut keadaaan..... Sebab tu Abang tidak ada masa nak membawamg hal Susu sesiapa, hal parti mana, sibuk hal artis mana buat apa, PU siapa kawin berapa macam ramai orang lain... Abang bukan tak kisah tapi tak nak ambil kisah sebab ia bukan urusan Abang... Banyak lagi urusan Abang perlu dilakukan dan mudah-mudahan dapat sedikit sebanyak bermanfaat kepada orang keliling Abang.... Hidup ini kurangkan kaypoh hal orang yang tak menyumbang pun kepada kehidupan kita..... Dan akan ada orang suka kita dan akan ada orang yang tidak kenal kita atau tidak tahu apa perjuangan kita yang akan tidak suka kita tanpa sebab.... Tapi itu semua tak penting... Apa yang penting? Kita sendiri suka tak dengan apa yang kita lakukan dan bermanfaat tak untuk diri, keluarga dan ramai orang lain yang kita boleh beri manfaat.... Alhamdulillah selepas 21-tahun dalam pelbagai jenis business dan sekarang active investor, Abang syukur dengan hidup Abang.... Abang rindu dengan Mak Abang, Isteri, Anak2, Keluarga dan semua di Malaysia tapi Abang tahu... Inilah namanya Perjuangan. Perjuangan untuk memuliakan bangsa Abang... Dengan cara Abang... Bina lebih ramai usahawan dan jutawan yang kaya dunia akhirat Insha Allah! Sorry panjang sikit..🤣🤣

For those who were there at McDonough Gymnasium on August 4, 1994, few will forget the arrival of a 6-0 freshman guard who needed no introduction. The rumors of Allen Iverson's arrival to the Kenner Summer League were true, and by game's end, Iverson had scored 40 points. By the Sunday afternoon final, before an overflow crowd inside the gym and a crowd of those outside who could not get in, Iverson finished a combined 99 point effort in three days against some of the best collegiate talent in the city. This, of course, from a player that had not played organized basketball in over a year.

The Allen Iverson years had begun.

A brief profile can't do justice to tell the story of one of the greatest pure athletes ever to attend Georgetown, a man without peer in his talent over two years at the collegiate level. Just a year before his Kenner debut, few would have imagined Allen Iverson ever playing college basketball.

Iverson was not only a 31 point a game guard for Bethel HS, but a football player of tremendous skill. As a quarterback and defensive back his sophomore season, he produced nearly 1,600 yards offense and 13 INT's. By his junior year, he accounted for 2,204 yards, 21 touchdowns by rush or interception, and 14 touchdown passes. In a region which has produced NFL quarterbacks such as Michael Vick and Aaron Brooks, there are those who will still say "Bubbachuck" Iverson was better than both of them. Schools such as Arkansas, Kentucky, Duke, and three dozen other top programs across two sports were vying for perhaps the greatest two-sport star the Tidewater had ever produced.

When he led Bethel to the state title, someone asked what it was like to win the title. "I'm going to get one in basketball now," which he did. In late February, 1993, en route to the state title he had promised, Iverson was one of a large group of Bethel teammates at a Hampton bowling alley when a fight broke out between students from rival schools trading racial insults. Three people were hurt in the aftermath. Despite conflicting testimony from eyewitnesses and no clear evidence linking him to the crime, Iverson was one of four black students arrested.

Racial tensions were heightened when the prosecutors passed on a misdemeanor assault charge and charged Iverson with three counts of felony "maiming by mob", which carried a 20 year prison sentence. Despite video evidence which did not place Iverson in the crowd at the time of the fight, he was convicted in a racially charged case.

The 20 year sentence was later reduced to five, and Iverson was granted clemency by Gov. Douglas Wilder three months later, sending Iverson to a detention program at an alternative high school. (The original charges were thrown out by the Virginia court of appeals in 1995.)

In the spring of 1994, with Iverson still in detention, his mother approached John Thompson with a plea to help her son get to college and start a new chapter of his life. Though Thompson had passed on a number of troubled players in the past, he offered Iverson a scholarship in April of that season, contingent upon his completion of high school and his legal release, which was granted 48 hours before his Kenner debut.

By his debut in a Georgetown uniform in November 1994, Iverson had been the subject of intense national media attention. In the Hoyas' annual exhibition with Fort Hood, Iverson scored 36 points, five assists, and three steals in 23 minutes. Local columnists were in awe.

"Hang his number up in the rafters," wrote Tom Knott of the Washington Times. "He's better than most of the point guards in the NBA right now."

"I saw Lew Alcindor, Austin Carr, Moses Malone, Alonzo Mourning, Albert King, Ralph Sampson and Patrick Ewing play in high school," said the Post's Thomas Boswell. "Now, I have two memories on my first impression top shelf. The man who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Allen Iverson."

Iverson opened the 1994-95 season in Memphis, TN in a 97-79 loss to defending NCAA champion Arkansas, scoring 19 points. Six days later, he scored 31 in a nationally televised game with DePaul, followed by 30 four days later against Providence, leading the team in scoring 22 times that season. His only game under double figures for the season (and his career) was a game where he played only ten minutes in a loss at Villanova, a game Georgetown coach John Thompson threatened to forfeit when a group of Villanova students paraded through the Spectrum in black and white-striped prison garb, with a sign comparing Iverson to O.J. Simpson.

"You accept certain ribbing, but there is a line," Thompson said after the game. "I can condone any Christian university sitting and watching that happen...If that happens [again], I going to walk. It that simple." Such fan behavior was not seen thereafter.

Later in the season, with President Bill Clinton in attendance, Iverson scored 26 as the Hoyas routed Villanova, 77-52. He followed it up with 21 to beat Syracuse, 28 versus St. John's, 31 in a Big East tournament opener with Miami (a game that saw Iverson outscore the entire Hurricane team at the end of the first half), and 27 versus Connecticut in the semis. In the NCAA regional, he scored 24 in the loss, but held Jeff McInnis to 1 for 8 shooting. By season's end, Allen Iverson had been named Big East Player of the Week nine times, Rookie of the Year, a second team all-conference selection, and honorable mention All-America recipient. Having led the Hoyas in points and steals en route to the school's first NCAA regional appearance since 1989, Iverson was already a star. By 1996, he would become nothing less than a sensation.

The leaser of a talented team that featured four future NBA stars, Allen Iverson dominated the 1995-96 season as no Hoya has done before or since. Adept at the crossover dribble that became his NBA trademark, lightning quick to the basket, and able to score on opponents at will, Iverson was largely unstoppable. Even more impressive was an effort to improve his shooting touch, for despite averaging 20.4 points as a freshman in 1994-95 (2nd all time for a Georgetown rookie), Iverson only shot 39 percent from the field, 23 percent from three, and 19 percent from three in Big East play. For his sophomore season, his field shooting increased to 48 percent, his three point mark to 36 percent. The results were striking.

In the pre-season NIT versus Temple, Iverson shot 50 percent for 24 points and a career high 10 rebounds. After a 23 point effort against Georgia Tech, he scored a career high 40 against Arizona, one of two 40+ point games that season. In Big East play, Iverson could ring up points with ease, such as the game where he scored 21 points in only 20 minutes against Rutgers.

In the final three months of the season, Iverson led the team in 21 of the team's 25 games: 40 against Seton Hall, 39 against St. John's, 34 against Providence. He scored 30 in a wild win over Memphis, and followed it up two nights later with 26 in an upset of #3 Connecticut. For the game, Iverson totalled 26 points, 8 steals, and 6 assists, including a soaring dunk past Ray Allen and the Huskies. It was the highest ranked team any Georgetown team had defeated since 1988. His best performance of the season might have been a 37 point, 8 rebound, and three steal effort against #6 ranked Villanova, playing only 27 minutes. The 106-68 win represents the sixth largest margin of victory and the largest margin ever by a Georgetown team against a top 10 opponent.

Iverson was capable of an off game; unfortunately, two came at particularly inopportune times for the Hoyas' hopes for a national title. Entering the 1996 Big East Final with a #1 seed on the line, Iverson shot 4 for 15 and the Hoyas lost by one, 76-75. As a result of the loss, Georgetown was seeded #2 behind top ranked UMass, and in the regional final between the two teams Iverson struggled with a 6 for 21 effort in the loss. For the season, though, his statistics were astonishing: his 926 points broke the then-record by 124 points. He set new single season marks in field goals, field goal attempts, three pointers, three point attempts, steals, minutes, and scoring average (25.0), the latter of which ranked 7th in the nation that season. The Big East's defensive player of the year, he was named a consensus All-American amidst numerous other awards.

If he could somehow have stayed four years, Iverson undoubtedly would have shredded the Georgetown record books. But whatever hopes existed for Iverson to resist the lure of the NBA were short lived, particularly with the news that one of his sisters had fallen ill. Seeing the opportunity to take care of his family's medical needs, Iverson announced for the NBA draft soon after the end of his sophomore season, becoming the first Georgetown player in the Thompson era to do so. The compact that had bound so many great Hoya players to a four year commitment--from Ewing to Williams, Mourning to Mutombo--had now been broken.

The first pick in the 1996 NBA draft, Iverson signed a $3.9 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers and a ten year, $50 million deal with Reebok. His effort on the court is well known and respected, but for all the media portrayals of Iverson as the anti-hero, an icon of a "Hip Hop Nation" that ran counter to the NBA's carefully constructed marketing image, or as a symbol of all that is allegedly wrong in professional basketball, he remains remarkably well-grounded.

Married for six years and the father of two, Iverson is fiercely loyal to his teammates and to his childhood friends. He considered it an honor to play for the U.S. Olympic team in 2004 when other NBA stars passed on the offer, and maintains a number of charity events to benefit his local community. In comparison to his NBA career, his years at Georgetown were largely free of the intense media and personal scrutiny, providing at least two years where he could grow as a person as well as a basketball player.

His arrival and exit at Georgetown is still a source of debate in some circles, but his performance on the court is not. Allen Iverson found a home, even briefly, at the Hilltop, and remains one of its brightest stars. "In my heart, I know I'm a basketball player," Iverson said following his 2006 NBA trade, "being that I know I can play with the best of them."

From that first Kenner League game on 1994, no one has doubted it since.

For those who were there at McDonough Gymnasium on August 4, 1994, few will forget the arrival of a 6-0 freshman guard who needed no introduction. The rumors of Allen Iverson's arrival to the Kenner Summer League were true, and by game's end, Iverson had scored 40 points. By the Sunday afternoon final, before an overflow crowd inside the gym and a crowd of those outside who could not get in, Iverson finished a combined 99 point effort in three days against some of the best collegiate talent in the city. This, of course, from a player that had not played organized basketball in over a year.

The Allen Iverson years had begun.

A brief profile can't do justice to tell the story of one of the greatest pure athletes ever to attend Georgetown, a man without peer in his talent over two years at the collegiate level. Just a year before his Kenner debut, few would have imagined Allen Iverson ever playing college basketball.

Iverson was not only a 31 point a game guard for Bethel HS, but a football player of tremendous skill. As a quarterback and defensive back his sophomore season, he produced nearly 1,600 yards offense and 13 INT's. By his junior year, he accounted for 2,204 yards, 21 touchdowns by rush or interception, and 14 touchdown passes. In a region which has produced NFL quarterbacks such as Michael Vick and Aaron Brooks, there are those who will still say "Bubbachuck" Iverson was better than both of them. Schools such as Arkansas, Kentucky, Duke, and three dozen other top programs across two sports were vying for perhaps the greatest two-sport star the Tidewater had ever produced.

When he led Bethel to the state title, someone asked what it was like to win the title. "I'm going to get one in basketball now," which he did. In late February, 1993, en route to the state title he had promised, Iverson was one of a large group of Bethel teammates at a Hampton bowling alley when a fight broke out between students from rival schools trading racial insults. Three people were hurt in the aftermath. Despite conflicting testimony from eyewitnesses and no clear evidence linking him to the crime, Iverson was one of four black students arrested.

Racial tensions were heightened when the prosecutors passed on a misdemeanor assault charge and charged Iverson with three counts of felony "maiming by mob", which carried a 20 year prison sentence. Despite video evidence which did not place Iverson in the crowd at the time of the fight, he was convicted in a racially charged case.

The 20 year sentence was later reduced to five, and Iverson was granted clemency by Gov. Douglas Wilder three months later, sending Iverson to a detention program at an alternative high school. (The original charges were thrown out by the Virginia court of appeals in 1995.)

In the spring of 1994, with Iverson still in detention, his mother approached John Thompson with a plea to help her son get to college and start a new chapter of his life. Though Thompson had passed on a number of troubled players in the past, he offered Iverson a scholarship in April of that season, contingent upon his completion of high school and his legal release, which was granted 48 hours before his Kenner debut.

By his debut in a Georgetown uniform in November 1994, Iverson had been the subject of intense national media attention. In the Hoyas' annual exhibition with Fort Hood, Iverson scored 36 points, five assists, and three steals in 23 minutes. Local columnists were in awe.

"Hang his number up in the rafters," wrote Tom Knott of the Washington Times. "He's better than most of the point guards in the NBA right now."

"I saw Lew Alcindor, Austin Carr, Moses Malone, Alonzo Mourning, Albert King, Ralph Sampson and Patrick Ewing play in high school," said the Post's Thomas Boswell. "Now, I have two memories on my first impression top shelf. The man who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Allen Iverson."

Iverson opened the 1994-95 season in Memphis, TN in a 97-79 loss to defending NCAA champion Arkansas, scoring 19 points. Six days later, he scored 31 in a nationally televised game with DePaul, followed by 30 four days later against Providence, leading the team in scoring 22 times that season. His only game under double figures for the season (and his career) was a game where he played only ten minutes in a loss at Villanova, a game Georgetown coach John Thompson threatened to forfeit when a group of Villanova students paraded through the Spectrum in black and white-striped prison garb, with a sign comparing Iverson to O.J. Simpson.

"You accept certain ribbing, but there is a line," Thompson said after the game. "I can condone any Christian university sitting and watching that happen...If that happens [again], I going to walk. It that simple." Such fan behavior was not seen thereafter.

Later in the season, with President Bill Clinton in attendance, Iverson scored 26 as the Hoyas routed Villanova, 77-52. He followed it up with 21 to beat Syracuse, 28 versus St. John's, 31 in a Big East tournament opener with Miami (a game that saw Iverson outscore the entire Hurricane team at the end of the first half), and 27 versus Connecticut in the semis. In the NCAA regional, he scored 24 in the loss, but held Jeff McInnis to 1 for 8 shooting. By season's end, Allen Iverson had been named Big East Player of the Week nine times, Rookie of the Year, a second team all-conference selection, and honorable mention All-America recipient. Having led the Hoyas in points and steals en route to the school's first NCAA regional appearance since 1989, Iverson was already a star. By 1996, he would become nothing less than a sensation.

The leaser of a talented team that featured four future NBA stars, Allen Iverson dominated the 1995-96 season as no Hoya has done before or since. Adept at the crossover dribble that became his NBA trademark, lightning quick to the basket, and able to score on opponents at will, Iverson was largely unstoppable. Even more impressive was an effort to improve his shooting touch, for despite averaging 20.4 points as a freshman in 1994-95 (2nd all time for a Georgetown rookie), Iverson only shot 39 percent from the field, 23 percent from three, and 19 percent from three in Big East play. For his sophomore season, his field shooting increased to 48 percent, his three point mark to 36 percent. The results were striking.

In the pre-season NIT versus Temple, Iverson shot 50 percent for 24 points and a career high 10 rebounds. After a 23 point effort against Georgia Tech, he scored a career high 40 against Arizona, one of two 40+ point games that season. In Big East play, Iverson could ring up points with ease, such as the game where he scored 21 points in only 20 minutes against Rutgers.

In the final three months of the season, Iverson led the team in 21 of the team's 25 games: 40 against Seton Hall, 39 against St. John's, 34 against Providence. He scored 30 in a wild win over Memphis, and followed it up two nights later with 26 in an upset of #3 Connecticut. For the game, Iverson totalled 26 points, 8 steals, and 6 assists, including a soaring dunk past Ray Allen and the Huskies. It was the highest ranked team any Georgetown team had defeated since 1988. His best performance of the season might have been a 37 point, 8 rebound, and three steal effort against #6 ranked Villanova, playing only 27 minutes. The 106-68 win represents the sixth largest margin of victory and the largest margin ever by a Georgetown team against a top 10 opponent.

Iverson was capable of an off game; unfortunately, two came at particularly inopportune times for the Hoyas' hopes for a national title. Entering the 1996 Big East Final with a #1 seed on the line, Iverson shot 4 for 15 and the Hoyas lost by one, 76-75. As a result of the loss, Georgetown was seeded #2 behind top ranked UMass, and in the regional final between the two teams Iverson struggled with a 6 for 21 effort in the loss. For the season, though, his statistics were astonishing: his 926 points broke the then-record by 124 points. He set new single season marks in field goals, field goal attempts, three pointers, three point attempts, steals, minutes, and scoring average (25.0), the latter of which ranked 7th in the nation that season. The Big East's defensive player of the year, he was named a consensus All-American amidst numerous other awards.

If he could somehow have stayed four years, Iverson undoubtedly would have shredded the Georgetown record books. But whatever hopes existed for Iverson to resist the lure of the NBA were short lived, particularly with the news that one of his sisters had fallen ill. Seeing the opportunity to take care of his family's medical needs, Iverson announced for the NBA draft soon after the end of his sophomore season, becoming the first Georgetown player in the Thompson era to do so. The compact that had bound so many great Hoya players to a four year commitment--from Ewing to Williams, Mourning to Mutombo--had now been broken.

The first pick in the 1996 NBA draft, Iverson signed a $3.9 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers and a ten year, $50 million deal with Reebok. His effort on the court is well known and respected, but for all the media portrayals of Iverson as the anti-hero, an icon of a "Hip Hop Nation" that ran counter to the NBA's carefully constructed marketing image, or as a symbol of all that is allegedly wrong in professional basketball, he remains remarkably well-grounded.

Married for six years and the father of two, Iverson is fiercely loyal to his teammates and to his childhood friends. He considered it an honor to play for the U.S. Olympic team in 2004 when other NBA stars passed on the offer, and maintains a number of charity events to benefit his local community. In comparison to his NBA career, his years at Georgetown were largely free of the intense media and personal scrutiny, providing at least two years where he could grow as a person as well as a basketball player.

His arrival and exit at Georgetown is still a source of debate in some circles, but his performance on the court is not. Allen Iverson found a home, even briefly, at the Hilltop, and remains one of its brightest stars. "In my heart, I know I'm a basketball player," Iverson said following his 2006 NBA trade, "being that I know I can play with the best of them."

From that first Kenner League game on 1994, no one has doubted it since.