Childhood, High School

Iverson attended Bethel High School in Hampton, Virginia. In 1991, as a junior, Iverson quarterbacked the school's football team to the state championship. Also in his junior year he averaged 31.6 PPG on the basketball court, and led Bethel to the 1992 state championship in that sport. The next year his prep career came to a screeching halt. On February 14, 1993, Iverson and several of his friends became involved in an altercation with a group of white teenagers at a Hampton bowling alley. Allen's crowd was raucous and was asked to quiet down several times. Eventually something of a shouting match erupted with another group of youths (all of whom were white). Shortly thereafter a huge fight erupted, pitting the white crowd against the blacks. During the fight, Iverson allegedly struck a woman in the head with a chair. He, along with three of his friends (also African-Americans) were the only people arrested. Iverson, who was 17 at the time, was convicted as an adult of the felony charge of "maiming-by-mob". Iverson and his supporters maintained his innocence, claiming that he had left the alley as soon as the trouble began. This incident was profiled on the CBS television news magazine 60 Minutes due to claims of racial bias in the adjudication of the case. Douglas Wilder, Governor of Virginia, became convinced that Iverson had been treated unfairly and granted Iverson clemency, releasing him from his sentence. Iverson's conviction was later overturned on appeal.