Rahsaan Langford is 24, from New York. Used to attend Norfolk State. Has known Allen Iverson since he was 14. Says he visits a lot.
Langford is one of Iverson's friends who frequently wait for the 76ers rookie guard after practice, who sometimes plays halfcourt basketball while Iverson is showering or watching postpractice film.
Some days, the group includes Marlon Moore, Eric Jackson, Kevin Spence, Alex Rhoden. Sometimes Iverson's uncle, Greg Iverson. Some days, there are others.
Go ahead, ask: Does that mean that they're the members of Allen Iverson's so-called posse?
``They're my friends,'' Iverson said. ``They're here so I don't have to be by myself. Some days, some of them are here. Other days, others are here. I don't have to explain why. Who I need to have around, whatever, all that's personal.
``We're not a posse. I don't know why people say we're a posse, or that I have an entourage. Maybe the people who say that have no friends. Maybe they're mad because I have friends. Maybe they're scared of my friends. I don't understand, but it doesn't bother me.''
But it bothered Iverson and fellow guard Jerry Stackhouse terribly when New York Post columnist Peter Vecsey wrote a story saying that, before the Sixers left on their post-Christmas road trip, Iverson's friends and Stackhouse's friends had an ``impromptu rumble'' outside the team's practice facility in Springfield, Delaware County. Both players insist that no such incident ever took place.
There also were some complaints from patrons at Victors, the restaurant in the CoreStates Center, when Iverson and his friends visited there after a game several weeks ago.
``I was there,'' said Henry ``Que'' Gaskins, the Reebok International director of marketing for Iverson. ``They were probably too loud, but there was no anger, no negativity. But to some people, it might have appeared that something was about to start. There wasn't. It's funny, but I haven't seen stories about Shaquille O'Neal's guys, about Grant Hill's guys.
``Allen considers his friends his family. When they come to visit, they don't stay in a hotel. Allen's 21, wants his friends around. He says he has always dreamed about being able to do this. He says his friends gave him his toughness, his heart.''
