The NBA airbrushed Allen Iverson

The hook

For the 1999–2000 holiday issue of Hoop, the NBA's own magazine, someone erased Allen Iverson's neck tattoo, his diamond earrings and his necklace. The league was selling his face and editing it at the same time. His answer: "Everybody knows who Allen Iverson is."

The Ink

Iverson said each tattoo meant something: CRU THIK for the friends he grew up with, his children's names, his grandmother's initials. The edited cover kept the jersey and dropped the biography.

Every one marks a person or a moment.

What was happening

Slam printed what hoop hid

Months earlier, SLAM put him on its cover in a throwback Sixers jersey, chains and a blown-out afro. Hip-hop and basketball were turning into one look, and he was the face of both. The league's magazine took the jewelry off.

The detail people forgot

Reebok bet $50 million on it

As a rookie he signed a 10-year, $50 million deal with Reebok, made lifetime in 2001. His Question sneakers sold everywhere. The NBA was airbrushing the exact image its sponsors were paying for.

Why it matters now

In 2005 the league brought in a dress code, and Iverson was its loudest critic. Today the walk from the team bus to the locker room gets shot and posted like a runway. The look the league once edited out is the look it now markets.

The league caught up to him.