DATE: Wednesday, August 27, 1997            TAG: 9708270762

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Analysis 

SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NEW KENT COUNTY                   LENGTH:   60 lines

IVERSON HAS NO CHOICE BUT TO CHANGE

Whether Allen Iverson should change his lifestyle became moot Tuesday.

A judge has seemingly given Iverson no choice.

New Kent County General District Court judge William H. Shaw ordered Iverson, the 1997 NBA rookie of the year from the Philadelphia 76ers, to stop carrying a gun and to submit to monthly random drug tests for two years, and placed him on probation for three years. Iverson was also ordered to perform 100 hours of community service and pay court costs.

What Iverson really needs, his defenders say, is an order to stop associating with a circle of friends from his hometown of Hampton.

``Some of his friends are not bad. Some of them are questionable,'' said Boo Williams, Iverson's AAU basketball coach. ``Sometimes I don't know how much Allen knows them. It might be the friend of a friend.''

Williams said he was surprised by Tuesday's outcome.

``They didn't take it that light on him,'' he said.

Others - everyone from 76er management to former Gov. Douglas Wilder - have chastised Iverson for showing poor judgment.

Iverson has been a controversial figure since 1993, when his involvement in a bowling alley brawl landed him four months in jail. Wilder granted him clemency, and the conviction was later overturned.

More recently, Iverson has been criticized for seemingly ignoring the lessons of his past. Last September, two of Iverson's friends were in his Mercedes when shots were fired at the car.

Iverson also admitted to carrying a gun for protection.

Iverson's backers say he's loyal to a fault. He won't abandon the friends he grew up with.

``He has a tough time telling his friends to take a hike,'' Iverson's mother, Ann, told the Washington Post last year.

Iverson has spent this summer overseeing completion of a $276,000 house off Route 17 in York County. He's also played pickup basketball and shuttled between Hampton and Philadelphia.

Iverson's new house - although modest for a major sports star - is a long way from the Newport News and Hampton neighborhoods he called home as a child.

Although Iverson has left the street life, it occasionally intervenes.

On July 30, Iverson had a confrontation at a Hampton charity basketball game with a 23-year-old Newport News man, Keith ``KG'' Grandy. Grandy's list of criminal charges include maiming and use of a firearm, although both charges were eventually dropped. Police charged Grandy with disorderly conduct and possession of cocaine after he was removed from the Hampton Coliseum before the charity game.

Iverson's close friend Andre ``Arnie'' Steele was by his side before that game and also came to court Tuesday. Steele, 27, was charged with attempted wounding and illegal use of a firearm in 1993 in connection with an incident at Hampton's Mercury Plaza. The charges were also dropped.

Commonwealth's Attorney C. Linwood Gregory, who prosecuted the case, said he hopes Tuesday's outcome will convince Iverson of the need to change his lifestyle.

Meanwhile, he said he did not want Iverson's community service to include a basketball clinic for the children of New Kent.

``I'd like to have better role models for kids in New Kent County,'' he said.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu