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Kyle Woodard Mr. Stevens English 12, Period 4 January 31, 2014

No Crossover The film I decided to watch is called "No Crossover" and is a 30 for 30 film directed by Steve James. The reason I chose this documentary is because it is about one of my favorite players that has played the sport of basketball. This film is about a former NBA star, Allen Iverson. I also chose this film because it goes well with my injustice project topic. My topic is bias in sports and the reason it fits is due to Allen Iverson being convicted of an alleged assault case. Iverson was present at a bowling alley on a night that he should not have been. A fight broke between a group of blacks and a group of whites, there are many different sides to the story depending on what defendant witness you were speaking to. If you were to speak to a white defendant witness, then the blacks started it, if you spoke to a black defendant witness, then the whites started it. In Iverson's case, it didn't matter who started the brawl, he got charged with assault for, allegedly, throwing a chair and hitting a woman in the head and giving her a concussion and stitches. Iverson was tried for assault when he shouldn't have. Iverson's defendant witnesses claimed that Iverson never threw a chair. No one else was charged for anything, except for Iverson, because he was a star athlete in high school, if he wasn't, he would not have been charged. Through many trials Iverson was found guilty and was sentenced to 5

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years in prison and 15 years of paroll but, with good behavior, could get release in ten months. There were many conspiracy theories of this case that Iverson was only found guilty because he played for Bethel, arch rival to the Hampton Crabberse, which is where the judge resides and supports deeply. Iverson would single handedly beat the Hampton Crabbers in not only basketball, but he was also a great football player. After he was incarcerated, Iverson's friends, family and community convinced the judge to overrule Allen's sentence due to the fact that no faces in the surveillance tape were clear, so they did not really have enough evidence to charge Iverson with ANYTHING. This story has a lot to do with racial division in this town. The town was known to be very racist and unfare to the black community. One of the main reasons Iverson was charged was because he was with a group of African Americans when the brawl happened against a group of whites. This incident almost derailed his career as a basketball player because he was also known to be selfish and difficult to coach. Iverson got a second chance, and I believe he deserved it because he is just as hard working as anyone when it comes to the game of basketball and he also ran a charity basketball camp back in his hometown of Bethel called "Camp Crossover" and I think he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I especially enjoyed to watch this film because it showed the untold parts of the story and it cut to the chase, I also enjoyed that it showed Iverson's triumphs after this incident and how he played ball for the Georgetown Hoyas, then went on to be the number one pick in the NBA draft, and possibly a Hall of Famer.