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Allen Iverson Hoping to Score Another Victory With Latest Trip to Court

Aired July 29, 2002 - 10:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Basketball star Allen Iverson is hoping to score another victory with his latest trip to the court. A preliminary hearing is being held this morning in Iverson's assault and trespassing case, and this hearing will address whether there's enough evidence to go on with a trial.

Joining us now to talk about Iverson's legal problems is Kenneth Shropshire. He's professor and chairman of legal studies at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Good morning. How are you?

KENNETH SHROPSHIRE, UNIV. OF PENNSYLVANIA: Good, Leon.

HARRIS: All right, do you want to handicap for us what you think will happen in court here?

SHROPSHIRE: This is a tough one to call. But I this there's a good chance that a lot of the charges will be dismissed and it could all be over by noon today.

HARRIS: And if that happens, what do you think would be next?

SHROPSHIRE: Allen goes on with life as usual. This is his not his first brush with the law, not that he's the type of endorser that everybody looks to as perfection, as kind of Martha Stewart-eque or Jordan. So I don't think he will lose much.

HARRIS: This is the Martha Stewart from hell. There's no way you can confuse the two in this case.

What do you think about his endorsement situation? Do you think in the end that possibly in some perverse way this could actually turn things around and actually make him more money in endorsements?

SHROPSHIRE: The fact of the matter is, Allen is not really focused on that at all. His concern is playing basketball. I think the Reebok deal, which is the one major endorsement deal he has, is kind of a consequence of his success. He's not striving to get the Ivory soap pads or the Milk Council ads. He is happy with what he' got, and he's happy conducting his life the way he conducts it.

HARRIS: But what interests me, is I was talking to my partner, Daryn, here about Lance Armstrong. He's a big story of the weekend. We were talking about the story he told about his sponsors came to him in the hospital when he was sacked with cancer, and they were talking to him on his on his death bed pretty much about backing away from him. This would never happen in a case like this. Here you have a case where a man is possibly standing charges here for something violent like this. You don't see sponsors doing that. Is there something different about basketball players, specifically, where this is the case.

SHROPSHIRE: Well, again, with Allen Iverson specifically, there aren't that many sponsors that we're concerned with. You have seen sponsors back away from an athlete when there is trouble around him. You think, maybe one of the most inappropriate back-aways was when Magic Johnson had his trouble with the HIV virus.

HARRIS: Yes, that's a good point, that's an excellent point. Let me ask you about the fans in Philly.

You live in Philly.

SHROPSHIRE: Right.

HARRIS: And we also know that your fans in Philly are the folks that booed Santa Claus. What in the world is going to happen to Allen Iverson when he does show up in the court during the regular season.

SHROPSHIRE: I think the fans in Philly are going to be concerned about how well he plays.

HARRIS: That's all they care about; they don't care about the image stuff at all.

SHROPSHIRE: Certainly, there's a lot on talk radio here about, this is it, I'm through with him. But the other side of the talk radio story is, did this really happen? Who are these guys making these accusations? And a whole lot of undercurrent that this is just a celebrity that's getting unfair treatment.

HARRIS: Yes, but let me ask you about that, those who are getting back like that, who are asking questions of the authorities, is that mostly minorities, black folks or what?

SHROPSHIRE: Well, I think it's coming from both sides. It's certainly more on the minority talk radio shows, especially the black talk radio station here, where that question is being asked, because it's such a long history of those kinds of problems in this city.

HARRIS: Let me ask you, with that in mind, we've seen what happened with certain other figures in the black constellation of stars, all right, if I can use that term. What happens if Allen Iverson is convicted, does he become a cult hero?

SHROPSHIRE: I don't know about that. I think what happens if Allen Iverson is convicted, he's forgotten pretty rapidly if he's not on the basketball court. I think the idea of what the crime is or what exactly he did is not that important. It's, is he being seen on the court?

But if he's able to do some community service, if he's able to pay a fine, then I think his life moves on as pretty much as normal.

HARRIS: Finally, I have to ask you this, because the question has come up a ton of times about athletes and whether or not they're different than the general population when it comes to actually committing these kinds of violent acts, and there's been a spade of these kind of acts against women in the news lately. Glenn Robinson, "Big Dog," up in Milwaukee, he was in the news last week or so.

Is there -- have you seen any studies that show whether or not athletes really are different than men in the general population, with these kind of things?

SHROPSHIRE: There have been studies over the past three or four years that have said that. At the same time, the people that contradict those studies say, look, these guy are high profile, that's why we hear about these cases much more than we hear about the case involving Joe Blow or the guy down the street.

HARRIS: Professor Shropshire, thank you very much for your insight today. We sure do appreciate it.

SHROPSHIRE: Thank you.

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