Biography

It was 1975 and Ann Iverson was 15 years old, unmarried and newly arrived with her family from Connecticut when she gave birth in Hampton to her first child.Allen Iverson was nicknamed Bubbachuck, a combination of two uncles' names.Iverson said his biological father rarely was in the picture during his childhood."You know, he called me a little bit this year (1996)," Iverson said."But, I mean, he can't take the place of Michael Freeman.Nobody ever will.That's who I feel is my father."Freeman said he was 18 and Bubbachuck just a few months old when he and Ann Iverson began living together in 1975.Freeman said he later became a welder for the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., and the father of Allen's sisters, Brandy and Iiesha.Ann Iverson held various jobs after graduating from high school - one on an assembly line at Avon Fashions, a clothes packaging and distribution factory where she worked from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m.At times she was unemployed.But Allen Iverson said he never has forgotten his mother's efforts."She took care of me for 20 years," he said."I want to just do the same thing for her."Freeman said he and Ann Iverson began living apart when Allen was in junior high school.Freeman said he helped support the family until he lost his job after a car accident."Then things got tough," he said."There were times when Allen never knew where his next meal was going to be," said Mike Bailey, Iverson's basketball coach at Bethel High."Here's a kid who couldn't take a bath because he had no running water because it had been turned off.Sometimes you had to go to five, six different places to find him," Bailey said."You couldn't phone some places because there were no phones."My mom struggled.My dad struggled.Everybody in my family struggled," Iverson said recently."It was nothing new, the lights being cut off or anything.I mean, it was something I had been dealing with my whole life."Unemployed, Freeman said he "went the wrong way. . . . I did what I had to do" to support the family. "And some things, you know, I had to go against the law to do."In February 1991, midway through Iverson's ninth grade year, Freeman was convicted in Newport News, Va., of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and given a 10 year prison sentence with five years suspended."When I left my son to go to prison I told him he's got to hold down the fort until I got home," Freeman said.Iverson was 15. "I said, Basketball is your family's way out."Freeman was paroled in December 1992.But he was arrested in Hampton in March 1994 on charges of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm.He was indicted for possession of cocaine; he pleaded guilty and was given a suspended sentence.In November 1994, the suspended sentence he received in 1991 was revoked and he was returned to prison.Freeman was paroled again in January."I feel all the jail time he did was for us," Iverson said."He couldn't stand to look at us living like that.So he went out and did what he had to do."

While Iverson was leading Bethel to state football and basketball titles during his junior year, his coaches became increasingly concerned about the company and late night hours he was keeping.One night in January 1993, Iverson was at a party in a hotel where a man was shot to death.On Valentine's Day in 1993, Iverson and friends involved in a gang fight at a Hampton, Virginia, Bowling Alley.Iverson's crowd was loud and had to be asked to quiet down several times, and eventually something of a shouting duel began with another group of youths.A huge fight erupted, pitting the local white kids against the blacks.It started as an argument between Iverson and a white youth.Iverson insists he left when trouble started.Another witness claimed to have seen him hit a white woman in the head with a chair.Iverson was tried as an adult, and the trial became a media circus.Iverson and three blacks were the only ones arrested and his celebrity bore on the case.Iverson was convicted of maiming by mob, and sentenced to five years in prison.Ann Iverson, meanwhile, began optimistically mapping out her 18-year-old son's future.On Oct. 10, 1993 she visited Allen in prison, where he signed an affidavit giving her power of attorney."My name is Allen Iverson," the affidavit read. ". . . I am in need for my mother to conduct any and all of my affairs and make any and all decisions for me . . ."One of Ann Iverson's decisions was to visit Thompson in early December 1993."She was the reason why I helped her child," Thompson said.Several weeks later, Virginia's governor at the time, L. Douglas Wilder, granted conditional clemency to Iverson, citing sufficient doubt about his guilt.Iverson was free after four months at the City Farm.In spring 1994, Thompson visited Iverson at Hampton's Richard M. Milburn High, which caters to students who have dropped out of school or are at risk of doing so."I never discussed that bowling alley incident:, never asked him, What really happened?' " Thompson said."I told him I did not want to talk about whether the judge was fair or not."