When Jim O’Brien was fired in May after only one season, Iverson joked no one could blame him. He was right. Iverson and Brown have long since reconciled and the vagabond coach named his former star a co-captain of the U.S. Olympic team.

Once nearly traded to Detroit, only Minnesota’s Kevin Garnett has been with one team longer than Iverson among active players. Iverson is signed through 2008-09 and, despite the occasional trade demand rumor, says he wants to end his career on South Broad Street.

“I gave a lot to this city, I’ve done a lot for this organization,” he said. “I fought my whole career here. I became a man here. From coming in at 20, 21 years old with my talents, everybody expected me to be some 30-year-old man like I am now when it wasn’t possible.”

Former Sixers guard Aaron McKie, now with the Lakers, said it was natural to see Iverson mature.

“I think he’s always going to be the same person,” McKie said. “As you get older and a little wiser, you’ve got younger guys coming up and you teach them just like older guys taught you. I don’t think you can live a full life if you don’t experience hardships.”

Slide show   NBA style A look at how players are complying, or not, with the new dress code enacted by commissioner David Stern.

Cheeks was a Sixers assistant the first five years of Iverson’s career and was amazed, when he returned, at the point guard’s maturation.

“I could hear how grown up he’d become,” Cheeks said. “That’s what happens with most people. They’ve got to grow up at some point and I could hear the growth in his voice. It was refreshing and it was amazing.”

Now don’t go thinking this is a more polished Iverson, all dressed up and living a Stepford life, ready to be featured as someone that can be embraced by those in the red states.

After all, the Iverson billboards around Philadelphia proclaim “I am what I am.” And no matter how mainstream he’s become, Iverson seems to be drawn like a magnet to controversy. When NBA commissioner David Stern implemented a dress code that stipulates players must dress in “business casual” attire, it was aimed at players such as Iverson who wear baggy pants, jerseys and hats to and from games.

Iverson — who’s making nearly $16.5 million this year — complained that players should be given a stipend to buy new clothes that adhere to the dress code. After all, he says, he bought jerseys of the stars of yesteryear he can never showcase.

The do-rag is a do not. Throw back the throwback. Unplug that diamond stud.

Iverson doesn’t plan to fight the rule.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Iverson said. “I’ll do it for the rest of the season.”

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