PHOTO CREDIT: JERRY LODRIGUSS / STAFF FILE PHOTO
Allen Iverson Got His Deadly Crossover From Georgetown Walk-On Dean Berry
Allen Iverson’s infamous crossovers went down as one of the deadliest moves in NBA history. He got’em all. Michael, Kobe, Dirk, Tracy, Vince and a lot of other players – too many to count.
But Iverson actually learned his famous crossover from a walk-on at Georgetown named Dean Berry when they were teammates. There’s something surprising and unexpected about Iverson, who is well known for being cocky and having limitless confidence, taking the time and having the curiosity to learn this move from an obviously inferior player.
Berry adopted facets of every crossover he studied. The reason Iverson kept playing Berry after practice was that he couldn’t stop Berry’s crossover — even when he knew it was coming. He’d tell himself not to go for the fake, and he knew he was quicker his teammate — the twelfth man on the team! — but then Berry would drop a cross on him and the next thing you knew, the walk-on was around him.
“Man,” Iverson finally said, “you gotta show me that sh*t.”
From then on, Berry taught his superstar teammate his favorite move and therefore, looking back now, made countless NBA players angry.
