Burgos: Is Brandon Jennings the next AI?

Last week I opined the fading career of Allen Iverson. Since then, Iverson and the Memphis Grizzlies have officially parted ways, agreeing to a mutual termination of Iverson’s contract. Though dismayed, it’s not as if I didn’t see this coming.

An avid fan of the NBA and big-time scorers, I was left searching for something to take my mind off the departed AI. I didn’t have to look far. The cure: Brandon Jennings, the second coming of Iverson.

This past Saturday, in just his seventh career NBA game, the 20-year-old Jennings dropped a ridiculous 55 points on 21 for 34 shooting and seven for eight from 3-point land. The rookie also chipped in five rebounds and five assists. Jennings did all this without scoring a single point in the first quarter. It’s the most a rookie has scored in a game since 1968.

Jennings has a similar scoring prowess to Iverson, but the comparisons don’t stop there. They are similar in stature, as Jennings is 6 feet 1 inch tall and 169 pounds while Iverson is listed at 6 feet and 165 pounds. Both use their handles to create space and take acrobatic jumpers over taller defenders, and both are shooting guards in point guard bodies.

Both were lottery picks in their draft year — Iverson No. 1 overall in 1996 and Jennings 10th this past summer, taken by the Bucks. In Iverson’s rookie year, he averaged 23.5 points per game but didn’t notch his first 50-point game until within the last eight games of the season. During those eight games, AI had a stretch of five games in a row where he dropped 40 or more. At the time, he was the second youngest player in league history to score 50 or more in a game.

Jennings took an obscure root to the NBA. During his senior year of high school, Jennings had initially committed to Arizona, a basketball program known for its great point guards over the past few decades. But Jennings wanted to be a trail blazer — but not the kind that plays in Portland. Instead of college, he decided to play overseas for a year before he was eligible to enter the NBA Draft. He played one season with Lottomatica Roma of the Euroleague for $1.65 million and also had a deal with Under Armour worth an additional $2 million. He averaged just 5.5 points and played 17 minutes a game.

Jennings was underwhelming, so coming into the Association, he had a lot to prove. Through the first eight games of the year, he averaged a robust 25.5 points and 35 minutes per game. He is shooting 48 percent from the field and 54 percent from beyond the arc. I hate to say it, but Jennings might just be better than AI.

In 1996, Iverson shot a paltry 41 percent from the floor. Now Iverson was never a guy to shoot the lights out and since he always took such a high volume of shots, it was almost negligible because, after all, that was the game plan — get Iverson a ton of shots, who cares if he misses. And though it’s early, if Jennings can continue to shoot at such a high clip, he’s destined for Rookie of the Year and by mid-season, perhaps even a spot on the Eastern Conference All-Star roster, something Iverson did not accomplish his rookie season.

Now, I realize it’s early, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but it’s hard not to be excited. There’s nothing like the little guy conquering his bigger and stronger peers in sports — it’s heroic. With Iverson on the way out, it’s only fitting that we have a new mighty mouse scurrying the courts of the NBA, terrorizing defenses with un-defendable isolation plays and creative dribbling and body distorting drives to the hoop. It’s almost as if the sports gods somewhere saw AI being pushed out and gave us something new to chew on.

In 889 career games and more than 36,786 minutes played, Iverson recorded 11 50-point games. He’s scored 24,020 points throughout his illustrious career. He did it his own way, and it will land him in the Hall of Fame one day.

Now, let’s see what Brandon Jennings can do.