allen iverson.jpg

Allen Iverson

(AP photo)

Long before he became a Sports Illustrated writer, Chris Mannix spent "almost 10 years" as a Boston Celtics ball boy -- or, as he called himself during the later years of his tenure, a "ball man."

It was during that time when Philadelphia 76ers superstar Allen Iverson asked Mannix to buy as much Corona as he could for the team bus.

As Mannix told the story for Sports Illustrated's Off the Record (video below), the Celtics had just eliminated Iverson's Sixers from the 2002 playoffs. Mannix took Iverson's money -- "I think it was close to $2,000," he said -- and walked to the nearest liquor store to purchase as much beer as possible. But as he rolled the beer back a quarter of a mile on a hand truck, happy Bostonians started stealing cases of beer. The amount of alcohol in Mannix's control further diminished when Celtics players saw him in the players parking lot and took some for themselves.

So by the time the "ball man" returned to Iverson, he only had about four cases of beer left.

"He goes, 'That's what my money bought you?'" Mannix said. "That's what $2,000 bought you?'"

But emotions never really escalated. Mannix sheepishly escaped by saying yes, that was all the money could manage.

"I think he was just in such a foul mood that he didn't really argue," Mannix said. "As long as there was something on that bus for him, he took it."

All this talk reminds me of the time I spent as a ball boy for the New York Knicks. They held training camp at my school, Skidmore College, so I was allowed to watch practice as long as I volunteered to help out. The team wasn't too exciting at the time. I can remember Zach Randolph, before he really figured things out, dominating on the glass (and talking a lot of junk); Allan Houston, attempting a comeback, draining 10 straight free throws during a drill while teammates tried desperately to disrupt his focus; and Stephon Marbury, before Mike D'Antoni benched him permanently, looking pretty good -- at least until his cheap signature shoes fell apart one practice. The team didn't have a backup pair for him, so he asked to borrow my sneakers. Sadly, I couldn't help him out. He's size 11.5 and I'm 13.

But the highlight of the week came when Jerome James, during the middle of practice, asked my buddy, another ball boy, to make him a ham sandwich. Yup. A ham sandwich. No further stories are necessary to explain James' failure to live up to his $30 million contract.

Video of Mannix's story follows (h/t Red's Army):