Really sad story, great gesture

[lefty]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2663839

Why, I mean why???? :bang :bang :bang

Sixers' Iverson to pay for funeral of gunshot victim
Associated Press

SEATTLE -- Allen Iverson will pay for the funeral of a man who died three years after he was shot in southwest Philadelphia because he refused to hand over his Iverson jersey to a group of teens.

Allen Iverson
Iverson

Iverson says he's tired of reading about murders in Philadelphia and wanted to do something.

"I don't think one guy can do what needs to be done, but I think one guy can help," Iverson said before Wednesday night's game in Seattle. "I think it's going to take a collective effort. and there is a lot of good people trying to help the situation in Philadelphia."

Kevin Johnson died Tuesday morning after his family chose to take him off life support. He was 22.

On June 24, 2003, a group of teens approached Johnson while he was waiting for a trolley and demanded he give up the Iverson jersey he was wearing. When he refused, Johnson was shot in the back of the neck by Robert Ferguson, who is serving a prison sentence on attempted murder charges.

The shooting left Johnson paralyzed, in a wheelchair and eventually on a ventilator. Last week, the ventilator failed, and Johnson suffered irreparable brain damage. The family chose to take him off it.

"It was time for Kevin to go home," Johnson's mother, Janice Jackson-Burke told the Philadelphia Daily News.

Johnson's funeral is set for next Wednesday, with the expenses covered by Iverson.

The seven-time All-Star contacted the hospital and spoke with Jackson-Burke. She told Iverson how much her son adored Iverson's play and how much he loved the Sixers.

"If they were that serious about that jersey, I would have given them 100 jerseys if they wanted it," Iverson said. "It was just tough, just to see somebody die for something senseless like that, over a jersey, over something material."

After he was left a quadriplegic, Johnson and his mother spoke at schools and rallies in the Philadelphia area about staying away from guns. He'll be buried in an Iverson jersey.

The family asked Iverson to attend the service, but the Sixers play that night in Milwaukee. Iverson said he talked to the family about not wanting to disrespect them, or for them to believe his offer was simply for publicity.

"I felt like I have got to do something more than what I have been doing to help this situation as much as I can," Iverson said. "If I can reach one person and take one death away, I think I can do something."

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press

[TDMVPDPOY]

very tragic story indeed...

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

Random thought after reading this, I wonder if Philly-area prosecutors can come back and bring murder charges against the guy that shot this kid.

I think one could legally argue that the act of the attempted murder led to the eventual murder of Johnson.

[lefty]

Random thought after reading this, I wonder if Philly-area prosecutors can come back and bring murder charges against the guy that shot this kid.

I think one could legally argue that the act of the attempted murder led to the eventual murder of Johnson.

True

[KFRebel]

I almost cried when I read the story. Poor kid must have been a true and diehard AI fan.

[boutons_]

"Iverson says he's tired of reading about murders in Philadelphia and wanted to do something."

Throw money (pocket change) at a funeral, that will really "do something".

"One guy can help" by setting an example for young black men:

by learning to speak Standard English correctly,

by not decorating your skin like a carnival side show, and

by not dressing yourself like a effeminate, over-the-top pimp doll.

Ivan-Iverson-lifestyle emulators/adulators are probably 90% unemployed and unemployable.

-- Bill Cosby

[FromWayDowntown]

Random thought after reading this, I wonder if Philly-area prosecutors can come back and bring murder charges against the guy that shot this kid.

I think one could legally argue that the act of the attempted murder led to the eventual murder of Johnson.

I don't think they can. They'd have some fairly significant double jeopardy hurdles to surmount. IIRC, jeopardy attaches once a person is tried for any crimes arising out of a particular transaction or occurrence. It's up to the prosecutor to decide how to charge the individual, but until Johnson died on Tuesday, there was no basis to charge murder. In theory, the prosecutor could have left the murderer on the streets to see if Johnson died from his injuries (most states have no statute of limitations on murder), but that would have been a poor choice, I think. Alas, once he charged the shooter and secured a conviction, he is (I'm almost sure) constitutionally prohibited from revisiting that shooting and re-charging the shooter.

[Spurminator]

I don't really understand why attempted murder and murder carry different sentences in the first place, but that's probably another conversation.

Nice gesture by Iverson.

[Chris Childs]

I would of done the same thing if somebody's kid got shot over a Chris Childs jersey.

[mcornelio]

I would of done the same thing if somebody's kid got shot over a Chris Childs jersey.nobody is dumb enough to die over a damn chris childs jersey you bum ass crub baller bitch.... i would give the robbers the jersey and some money as thanks for ridding me of that damn jersey. you blow homie, i can out ball you

[bdictjames]

:lol

[FromWayDowntown]

Glad to see that we can stay focused on a sobering topic.

[Chris Childs]

nobody is dumb enough to die over a damn chris childs jersey you bum ass crub baller bitch.... i would give the robbers the jersey and some money as thanks for ridding me of that damn jersey. you blow homie, i can out ball you

Why so negative?

[Leetonidas]

Why so negative?
Well, as humorous as your troll is, Chris Childs just flat out sucks.

[Spurminator]

as humorous as your troll is

How humorous is that? Like, enema-level humorous? Cancer?

[1Parker1]

Props to A.I. It's a sad thing that we live in a world like that where 22 year olds are getting shot over NBA jerseys. I remember back in the day when it was of Air Jordans.

[sleepybum]

Another article related to the original story.

Iverson paid for funeral, but can't stop its cause (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=kreidler_mark&id=2665001)

By Mark Kreidler
Special to ESPN.com

Allen Iverson this week did something that a bunch of people were quick to label as good, a few to dismiss as self-serving and the rest of us, I think, to receive as basically the only thing Iverson could think to do, which makes him fairly human in the face of a tragedy that transcends stardom.

When Iverson offered to pay for the funeral of Philadelphian Kevin Johnson, he set into motion several conversations at once. The root was the circumstance of Johnson's death itself: It came from complications more than three years after Johnson, then 19, was shot and left paralyzed because he refused to surrender his Iverson replica jersey to a group of teenagers at a Philly trolley stop.

Iverson was, and remained, Johnson's favorite player. Johnson, who lived as a quadriplegic with his mother until his death Tuesday, will be buried with an Iverson jersey. Technically, his ventilator failed late last week, leaving Johnson in a vegetative state; but more broadly, his life changed forever because somebody was willing to shoot him over a uniform.

And Iverson himself can do absolutely nothing about any of that, no more than he can prevent the next crime that's related to a material thing with some connection to sports. He couldn't prevent Johnson's shooting any more than Michael Jordan could prevent the 2005 death of Steven Terrett, who died on Chicago's South Side after apparently being shot by robbers who wanted his brand new Air Jordans.

So Iverson did the only thing he could think of, which was to call Johnson's grieving mother and ask if he could cover the cost of the funeral. Of course he can, and of course it is a decent and grounded gesture, even if it represents the slipperiest of slopes.

I have no trouble believing Iverson was hit hard by the news. Despite his own history with weapons (Iverson once pulled a gun on a cousin while trying to locate his wife, with whom he was feuding), the Sixers' star sounded genuinely anguished Wednesday while discussing Johnson's fate.

Iverson recited gun-death statistics, including "almost 400 people in Philadelphia" this year (actually 357 as of this week). "It's just terrible, what's going on in Philadelphia," he told reporters in Seattle before the Sixers played the Sonics. "I just feel like I've got to do something more than I have been doing to try to help this situation as much as I can."

And that's the rub, of course. The thing about being famous, or infamous, and monied is that it sometimes fosters the notion of a power that does not actually exist -- the power to transform society. As much as Iverson's words ring real, at the end of the day he is still a paid entertainer, not a social engineer. He won't solve gun crime in the inner city with a thousand free jerseys, or a million of them. But he will suffer all the same when something goes wrong that is even tangentially in his name.

Charles Barkley first elicited some awe, and then guffaws, when he once upon a time told viewers of a Nike commercial, "I am not a role model." Even Barkley now realizes that athletes in America are role models by definition, not choice. But his words have always been the source of great debate, just by the sheer audacity of what he (or the Nike scriptwriter) had to say.

I'm now convinced that Barkley uttered those words with such sincerity and passion because, deep down, one of his great fears was that somebody would use him as a role model, and what kind of deal was that? He was young, rich, on the prowl. Where was the upside to someone using him as a model for anything other than life in the NBA?

There is a component to their lives that famous people, famous athletes, can never fully control, and that is what direction the public or the fans will take when it comes to them. For his part, Iverson's public past is a checkered one -- gun charges, marijuana charges -- and even though it may be deep past, the record of a star never really goes away. It had to strike the 31-year-old point guard that he is now officially part of the concerned sect of society, the people who want the violence to end sooner rather than later. He sounds an awful lot like a grown-up.

"It was tough to see somebody die for something senseless like that, over a jersey, over something material," Iverson said. "Life is way more precious than a jersey."

If Iverson is looking for a way to channel his need to do something about the situation in Philadelphia, he can always follow Kevin Johnson's lead. Johnson spent the last three years of his life visiting schools and youth groups to warn kids and adults alike about the consequences of gun use. He was the living and suffering example of how badly it can go, and there are two other young men in prison as a result of their roles in that 2003 incident.

Of course, Iverson can't change the situation by himself. Neither could Michael Jordan, and neither can anyone. But Iverson can do what he can do, and judging by his words this week, it is what he wants. Take him at those words, and keep watching.

[Leetonidas]

How humorous is that? Like, enema-level humorous? Cancer?
Just trying to be nice. :lol

[trueD]

Another article related to the original story.

Iverson paid for funeral, but can't stop its cause (http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=kreidler_mark&id=2665001)

By Mark Kreidler
Special to ESPN.com

Allen Iverson this week did something that a bunch of people were quick to label as good, a few to dismiss as self-serving and the rest of us, I think, to receive as basically the only thing Iverson could think to do, which makes him fairly human in the face of a tragedy that transcends stardom.

When Iverson offered to pay for the funeral of Philadelphian Kevin Johnson, he set into motion several conversations at once. The root was the circumstance of Johnson's death itself: It came from complications more than three years after Johnson, then 19, was shot and left paralyzed because he refused to surrender his Iverson replica jersey to a group of teenagers at a Philly trolley stop.

Iverson was, and remained, Johnson's favorite player. Johnson, who lived as a quadriplegic with his mother until his death Tuesday, will be buried with an Iverson jersey. Technically, his ventilator failed late last week, leaving Johnson in a vegetative state; but more broadly, his life changed forever because somebody was willing to shoot him over a uniform.

And Iverson himself can do absolutely nothing about any of that, no more than he can prevent the next crime that's related to a material thing with some connection to sports. He couldn't prevent Johnson's shooting any more than Michael Jordan could prevent the 2005 death of Steven Terrett, who died on Chicago's South Side after apparently being shot by robbers who wanted his brand new Air Jordans.

So Iverson did the only thing he could think of, which was to call Johnson's grieving mother and ask if he could cover the cost of the funeral. Of course he can, and of course it is a decent and grounded gesture, even if it represents the slipperiest of slopes.

I have no trouble believing Iverson was hit hard by the news. Despite his own history with weapons (Iverson once pulled a gun on a cousin while trying to locate his wife, with whom he was feuding), the Sixers' star sounded genuinely anguished Wednesday while discussing Johnson's fate.

Iverson recited gun-death statistics, including "almost 400 people in Philadelphia" this year (actually 357 as of this week). "It's just terrible, what's going on in Philadelphia," he told reporters in Seattle before the Sixers played the Sonics. "I just feel like I've got to do something more than I have been doing to try to help this situation as much as I can."

And that's the rub, of course. The thing about being famous, or infamous, and monied is that it sometimes fosters the notion of a power that does not actually exist -- the power to transform society. As much as Iverson's words ring real, at the end of the day he is still a paid entertainer, not a social engineer. He won't solve gun crime in the inner city with a thousand free jerseys, or a million of them. But he will suffer all the same when something goes wrong that is even tangentially in his name.

Charles Barkley first elicited some awe, and then guffaws, when he once upon a time told viewers of a Nike commercial, "I am not a role model." Even Barkley now realizes that athletes in America are role models by definition, not choice. But his words have always been the source of great debate, just by the sheer audacity of what he (or the Nike scriptwriter) had to say.

I'm now convinced that Barkley uttered those words with such sincerity and passion because, deep down, one of his great fears was that somebody would use him as a role model, and what kind of deal was that? He was young, rich, on the prowl. Where was the upside to someone using him as a model for anything other than life in the NBA?

There is a component to their lives that famous people, famous athletes, can never fully control, and that is what direction the public or the fans will take when it comes to them. For his part, Iverson's public past is a checkered one -- gun charges, marijuana charges -- and even though it may be deep past, the record of a star never really goes away. It had to strike the 31-year-old point guard that he is now officially part of the concerned sect of society, the people who want the violence to end sooner rather than later. He sounds an awful lot like a grown-up.

"It was tough to see somebody die for something senseless like that, over a jersey, over something material," Iverson said. "Life is way more precious than a jersey."

If Iverson is looking for a way to channel his need to do something about the situation in Philadelphia, he can always follow Kevin Johnson's lead. Johnson spent the last three years of his life visiting schools and youth groups to warn kids and adults alike about the consequences of gun use. He was the living and suffering example of how badly it can go, and there are two other young men in prison as a result of their roles in that 2003 incident.

Of course, Iverson can't change the situation by himself. Neither could Michael Jordan, and neither can anyone. But Iverson can do what he can do, and judging by his words this week, it is what he wants. Take him at those words, and keep watching.


...one of his [Barkley's] great fears was that somebody would use him as a role model, and what kind of deal was that? .... Where was the upside to someone using him [Barkley] as a model for anything other than life in the NBA?:lol I can totally see that with Barkley.

And yeah, it must be frustrating to guys who have everything they want, live upscale lives--who come from the streets--and can't change anything about the crime there. But like the writer intimates, there ARE things that can be done. I dunno where AI is in the scheme of donating his $$$'s and time, but hopefully that will all change for him now.

P.S. Kreidler is a Sacramento Bee sports writer. :)