Shaq and Allen Iverson have some new roles ahead of them at sporting giant Reebok. The company announced this week that Shaq and Iverson would serve as the President and Vice-President of Basketball respectively. For Shaq, it's a homecoming of sorts after signing his first career sneaker deal with the company nearly three decades ago. "As an athlete, he made an incredible imprint on not only our brand, but the entire sport and culture of basketball. With the combination of his deep-rooted history with Reebok and reigning influence he’s made on the game, there is no one better than this guy," Reebok CEO Todd Krinsky said of Shaq.
The pair will work together to help elevate the brand. Shaq will work on brand partnerships. Meanwhile, Iverson will focus on community initiatives and partnership activations. Iverson is also a Reebok athlete, signing with the brand in 1996. "We’ve been friends forever. He's a great dude, he's a great friend, and he was happy—and he'll be next to me," Shaq told Complex of the partnership.
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Dwyane Wade Shares Touching Tribute To Iverson
However, Shaq isn't the only person who has been praising Iverson in recent months. AI was on hand to present Dwyane Wade with his Hall of Fame jacket back in August. "It means everything to me," Wade told PEOPLE. "I wear the number three jersey because of Allen Iverson and just have so much respect for that man. No one has been able to use [Iverson] yet, and that I'm the first one to be able to say Allen Iverson has presented me into the Hall of Fame…that right there, if you tell 17-year-old Dwyane that, I wouldn't believe you."
Initially, Wade wanted his longtime Miami Heat co-star Udonis Haslem to present him. However, your presenter must be an existing Hall of Famer and Haslem only announced his retirement this offseason. "So, when I started thinking about guys that are Hall-of-Famers, guys that I looked up to, right away three names came to mind," Wade says. "It's Michael Jordan, it's Kobe Bryant, and it's Allen Iverson. Obviously, my brother Kobe couldn't be in that seat, couldn't be in one of those chairs to present me in." Eventually, Wade settled on the Sixers legend.
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