DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Brendan Gaughan is wearing a fire suit, discussing his start in Sunday’s Daytona 500, a highlight in the 41-year-old’s mostly journeyman career.

Except what he’s talking about isn’t the race to come but a career gone by: his days as a walk-on basketball player at Georgetown in the mid-1990s, where as mostly a practice player he was charged by coach John Thompson to play aggressive and physical defense on the Hoyas stars.

In many cases, that meant squaring off with no less than Allen Iverson.

“You know the old joke, ‘He can cross you so hard he’ll break your ankle?’ ” Gaughan said with a laugh Wednesday. “He actually crossed me so hard I did break my ankle. It was black and blue for two years.”

Of all the odd intersections in sports, Gaughan’s story is perhaps the most unlikely – from getting crossed over by Allen Iverson to trading paint with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

And that isn’t even the whole thing. He grew up in Las Vegas, where his family is prominent in the gaming industry (their South Point Casino is his chief sponsor). He was an excellent off-road racer as a kid and later a highly recruited field goal kicker – he once hit a 61-yarder for Bishop Gorman High School.

An injury curbed the potential of his kicking career – and made him susceptible to that ankle break. The big-school scholarship offers disappeared. Instead he enrolled at Georgetown where he played non-scholarship football and walked on the hoops team despite being just 5-foot-9.

That led him to a fateful day he was caught alone defending Iverson on a fast break. Iverson was then just a highly touted freshman out of Hampton, Va., who during the first few days of fall practice was trying to prove he was as good as the hype.

As Iverson sprinted down the court, Gaughan tried to stay in front of him only to wind up in a heap. There was no shame in the failure considering no other human would have done much better. Iverson’s handle was so legendary it made a fool of everyone who dared guard him, from Michael Jordan on down en route to a career that included NBA MVP honors, 11 All-Star game appearances and enshrinement in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

“You don’t know what is coming, that’s the problem,” Gaughan said. “You don’t know what move he’s going to hit you with … [That day] he hit me with what we used to call ‘The Bat Man’ [but] it was the crossover. My ankle stayed [where it was] … chipped a bone and tore some ligaments, but I taped it up and guarded him every day. That was my job.”

Day after day getting abused by Iverson might not seem fun, but it wasn’t always one-sided. Thompson allowed physical play and blatant fouls in practice. He wanted Iverson and the others roughed up. Gaughan obliged. “I was able to beat on him and bang on him,” Gaughan said. He and Iverson quickly became friends over the course of the next two years, before AI jumped to the NBA. They remain in contact to this day.

“We knew we were watching something special,” Gaughan said. “He was an amazing, amazing basketball player.”

In September, Iverson named every one of his Hoya teammates, Gaughan included, during his enshrinement speech at the Hall of Fame. He appreciated the push and pressure that made him who he was. While Iverson has yet to attend a race, Gaughan is still trying and has long returned the respect – he once drove with his hair in cornrows as a tribute to his old teammate.

“He’s a great man,” Gaughan said. “I’ve been friends with him for 20 years now. He’s smarter than he’s given credit for. He worked hard and you knew he wouldn’t have a [long] NBA career because of how hard he abused his body [in the game]. That guy, man, he did things nobody in the history of the league could do at the size he was. I’m still in awe of the things he did.”

View photos Brendan Gaughan showed some Georgetown pride during a truck race in 2006. (Getty Images) More

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