Allen Iverson is finally getting his flowers
Viola gives an NBA icon his own line of strains after decades of influence in sports, fashion and popular culture.
The 2001 NBA Most Valuable Player, Allen Iverson, was popular during his time as a professional basketball player because of his electric style of play and his sense of fashion. Last week, Al Harrington’s Viola announced their very first talent partnership with Iverson, including a collection of strains honoring the rich legacy of the newly minted Hall of Famer.
While Harrington and Iverson have never had a chance to play for the same team in their 12 simultaneous seasons, the couple appear more than ready to spread the healing powers of cannabis while disrupting the racial origins of the stigma of the plant.
Why Allen Iverson is already an icon
To fully understand the implications of Viola working with AI, you must first understand Allen Iverson. His “brand” has thrived for 25 years, despite many of the same racial stigmatizations and institutions that the cannabis industry still fights against today – all because of the strength of skill and character.
“What difference does it make in the way I wear my hair? They basically said, ‘This guy’s a thug.’ But I was just myself. “
Allen Iverson
For most of his playing career, the admiration Iverson received from fans was countered by the strong rejection of corporate interests in the media and the NBA.
When he entered the NBA in 1996, the basketball world was desperately looking for the next Michael Jordan, whose mainstream appeal grossed billions for the league and neighboring sponsors. But much of the same massive industrial complex that emerged from MJ’s model marketability was openly angry at the AI’s refusal to live up to its ideas of who it should be and what it should look like.
Iverson was considered a “symbol of youthful arrogance and disrespect in the NBA” and said several times that he had to change his image in order to gain acceptance in the league. Along with other racist criticism he received for things like wearing durag and cornrows and getting heavily tattooed, Allen Iverson was also convicted of his past – including a cannabis conviction.
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The pursuit of a phenomenon
In 1997, a 22-year-old Iverson was arrested in his hometown of Hampton, Virginia, for possession of marijuana after officers “smelled weed” and found “a two and a half inch long marijuana cigarette” and an unloaded gun in his vehicle.
“[Iverson] gave everyone the courage to be who they are. And when I think about what we do with cannabis, it’s the same. We step out there for the people who are a little scared and give them an insight into what it would look like if they did too. “
Al Harrington
The sports star was still battling the negative PR of a 1993 traumatic incarceration that cut off his promising high school soccer and basketball careers and compromised his ability to practice both sports in college.
Fortunately, after five months of his five-year sentence, the conviction was overturned. Even so, Iverson became the subject of Reefer Madness-style scare tactics from such media outlets as ESPN, Sports Illustrated, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, all of which coded and used not-coded racist language in early coverage of his career.
In 2005, NBA Commissioner David Stern even went so far as to introduce a dress code requiring players to wear conservative business-casual attire to games and official league events – a clear picture of Iverson’s influence on a generation of players, which was modeled in his image of braids, diamonds, tats and king-size throwback jerseys.
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Then as now, it is clear that Iverson’s fashion was never about style or aesthetics. It was a cultural warfare, not unlike the racist propaganda that made marijuana illegal for generations past.
It makes all sense in the world that a brand with a strong commitment to justice (like Viola) is ready to raise him up and help him shine in the cannabis industry.
Viola and the Iverson Collection
Though the media gatekeepers of the 1990s definitely tried, nobody could contain Allen Iverson’s talent. His presence raised questions of race and class that few could unpack for a prime-time audience, but his skill and appeal were undeniable.
For Al Harrington of Viola, working with Iverson goes beyond numbers and business. It’s about giving a legend justice for what Iverson has already earned and for the untapped potential he still has as an influencer.
Basketball fans will always remember Iverson as the greatest pound-for-pound player in NBA history as he defied physics and overpowered far bigger opponents.
Now, Iverson’s partnership with Viola could prove as legendary, gram for gram, as his career as a player if they continue to prioritize social justice and MVP-level products that continue to transform the game.
Calvin Stovall
Calvin Stovall writes and produces media in Atlanta, GA and runs the day-to-day business for The Artistic Unified Exchange, a nonprofit that protects intellectual property on behalf of independent artists and underserved communities.
View article by Calvin Stovall
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