Iverson is not a sensation here, but rather an exciting curiosity for small pockets of basketball fans, playing for a club that doesn't even compete in Euroleague, Europe's most prestigious.
The 76ers' former all-everything guard is broke - by all accounts except his own - and playing here in Istanbul for a number of reasons, none of which is to become an ambassador for Turkey's solid, but often overlooked, professional league.
In early November, Iverson signed a two-year, $4 million contract with Besiktas, then missed his original flight to Istanbul, got on a plane two days later, and scored 15 points in his Besiktas debut on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Besiktas plays crosstown rival Fenerbahce Ulker, whose point guard is former Temple University star Lynn Greer.
The Blue Mosque, Spice Market, and Grand Bazaar are all about a half-court heave in any direction. The streets are cobblestoned, the newspapers filled with soccer, and the restaurants packed.
It's Istanbul's tourist district, where the waiters know English and the cabbies know every switchback in every road.
No one knows Iverson. Not one.
A waiter, flipping through pictures on his touchscreen phone and singing Usher, tilts his head when asked about Iverson.
"Where's that?" he finally asks, more curious than confused, as if "Allen Iverson" is a new nightclub he'd like to check out.
Never mind.
"In that area, they may not know," said Ismail Senol, an announcer for NTV Spor, which broadcasts Turkish Basketball League games. "It's a financial thing. In rich areas, they know Allen Iverson because NBA TV, they have to pay for it and then are interested in it. In some places they'll know him, in some places they don't know him."
Maybe Greer can explain.
