WASHINGTON -- Among the multitude of tattoos that cover his scrawny body, the one burned into the back of his left shoulder speaks volumes about where Allen Iverson seems to be in his NBA career, and perhaps his life.
"The Realist," it reads.
The reality of Iverson's situation is that he is stuck with a mediocre team that one night looks as if it's headed for the NBA playoffs and the next looks as if it could be free-falling toward the draft lottery.
Yesterday's meeting with the Washington Wizards was certainly a case for the latter, as the Philadelphia 76ers lived up to their nickname in a lackluster 104-76 loss.
The defeat, coming three days after a rousing triple-overtime win over the Boston Celtics at home, was the worst of the season for Philadelphia (18-19). It typified what has been a problem for the 76ers when they lose.
No defense.
No effort.
No heart.
It was enough to have Iverson share publicly his growing frustration.
"This probably is my most frustrating season, honestly," Iverson, in his 10th year in the NBA, said after the game. "We're kind of in a struggle in how I need to play, how we need to play as a team, what we need from me, what we don't need from me."
For now, the player known as "The Answer" doesn't have any. He might be leading the NBA in minutes played and be second in scoring behind Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, but Iverson is admittedly way down the list in solutions.
"I always know my identity on a team. Since I've been here in Philadelphia, I've always knew what I had to do to make us a better team. Right now I really don't know what I need to do to make us better," Iverson said.
"I'm playing the way I always play. When I start thinking, trying to play a certain way, then I struggle. I'm used to playing one way, and that's just basketball - whatever the defense gives me, I take it. I'm struggling, and if I struggle, we're going to struggle as a team."
Iverson hit two of his first three shots against the Wizards, but finished just six of 20 overall, his 17 points about half his season's average. Wizards point guard Gilbert Arenas, fourth in the league in scoring, scored 22 points but also had a season-high 12 assists.
What seemed evident yesterday, as during the course of what has been an up-and-down season, is that the 76ers have not jelled the way many, including Iverson, thought they would. As well as he is playing - some say as well as he did when he was the league's Most Valuable Player in 2000-01, the season he led the 76ers to the Finals - the 76ers are not.
