Allen Iverson is a brash loud-moth. He is to the National Basketball Association what Terrell Owens is to the National Football League and Barry Bonds is to Major League Baseball. He is a supremely talented athlete and a problem-child, who is viewed universally as a bad-boy. 

I wouldn’t want Iverson on my team, not even if all I had to give up in exchange was a cup of Gatorade. Especially if it was the yellow kind. I wouldn’t trade a bag of balls for Owens, and you couldn’t pay me enough to welcome Bonds into my clubhouse. That’s just the way I am.  

Kudo’s to the Philadelphia 76ers for opting to wash their hands of their super-star guard. They are a bad team that will only get worse by trading Iverson, but it is a necessary move as it pertains to the future for the mediocre franchise. There is a reason that none of the three has ever won a championship. They’ve all been close. 

Iverson played in an NBA Final; Owens appeared in the Super Bowl two years ago, and Bonds took-part in the 2002 World Series.  But none of the three hoisted a trophy back then, and none of the three is rocking a ring right now. 

There are problematic players I’d make room on my roster for. I’m not completely against bad apples. I just have a strict policy in weighing whether or not they are worth the trouble they cause. 

Take for example Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Joey Porter. An eighth-year player and a three-time pro-bowl linebacker who’s spent his entire career in Pittsburgh; there isn’t an athlete on the planet with a bigger mouth than Porter. But he’s a guy I wouldn’t think twice about signing if I were an NFL executive. Despite his being fined twice this season for saying things he obviously shouldn’t have, you never have to worry about where Porter’s head is at. 

The outside-linebacker doesn’t miss practices, something Iverson has become infamous for. He doesn’t spent half of training camp on the sidelines riding a stationary bike, which Owens did at his first training camp as a member of the Dallas Cowboys. And Porter doesn’t treat the media, and many fans, with the disrespect that Bonds has over the past decade-plus. 

Chad Johnson, arguably the NFL’s only receiver as outspoken and brash as Owens, could be my number-one receiver any day of the week. Johnson isn’t one of the Bengalis getting arrested, and the perennial pro-bowler doesn’t skip practices for no reason. He’s a hard-worker, who is very passionate about football and very team-oriented. Despite the fact that he talks about himself in the third-person, Johnson is a Bengal first, and “ocho-cinco” second. 

So you can have Iverson. Take Owens and Bonds too. I’d rather have the other AI in Philly, Terry Glenn at receiver, and Randy Wynn in my outfield. 

But don’t think about adding Porter or Johnson to your team of bad-boys. They walk-the-walk, and value their team, and for that, they can be a part of mine.