Tony Davis couldn't stay off the phone.
Davis, the owner/manager of How Ya Wannit? barbershop, was trying focus on cutting his customers' hair. Instead, he spent yesterday afternoon picking up the phone.
In every instance, the caller wanted to talk about Allen Iverson's return to the 76ers.
Yesterday morning, the 6-foot guard agreed to the organization's one-year, non-guaranteed contract. Iverson had played 10-plus seasons for the Sixers before being traded to the Denver Nuggets in 2006.
"Man, people have been talking about this all day and it's still early," Davis said around 1 p.m. "People are still at work. People are still in school."
The conversations weren't limited to the phone.
The barbershop, located at 1630 Margaret St. in the Frankford section of Philadelphia, was packed, just as it usually is.
How Ya Wannit? has been at this particular location since 2001. Before that, it was located on Frankford Avenue, across from Frankford Hospital, for three years.
More than just a barbershop, it's a place where police officers, preachers, lawyers, real estate brokers, doctors, blue-collar workers, you name it, all go to debate sports. Wilt Chamberlain stopped by a couple of times. Chamberlain's best friend, Vince Miller, the former boys' basketball coach at Frankford High, was a fixture there before he passed away in February.
Miller, a die-hard basketball fan, would have enjoyed yesterday's topic at the barbershop.
"We got hope now," said Quel Crews, a frequent visitor and Sixers fan. "We needed a scorer. We don't have one. We got Louis Williams. He's an all right player. But he's no Iverson. He's not a No. 1 option. We got our No. 1 option back."
Crews was one of many people in the barbershop who felt that way.
Barber Zo Mayo even purchased tickets for Monday's game against the Denver Nuggets. That's supposed to be Iverson's first game during his second go-round with the Sixers. Customer Sharif Greene said he is going to buy season tickets tomorrow. Mayo and Greene both stopped attending Sixers games after Iverson left.
"I wasn't going to pay to see [Andre] Iguodala," said Greene, while getting his hair cut. "I wasn't going to pay to see that. But since Iverson is here, hey, I got to go. That's my man. I've always been a fan of Iverson."
Not everyone at the barbershop was delighted that the Sixers re-signed Iverson. Barber Terrell Taylor is fearful that Iverson's score-first mentality will hurt the team.
