Allen Iverson Shares His Concerning Drinking Habits After NBA Retirement

Overcoming a drinking problem is no easy task, but Hall of Famer Allen Iverson is among those who have pulled it off. Iverson finally decided to quit drinking in 2025 and called it one of the best decisions he made in his life . It undoubtedly was a great decision, as he spoke about his concerning drinking habits on the Underground Lounge .

"I'm buying two bottles of Don [Julio] probably every other day," Iverson said. "They 150 in the store. So you spending 300 every other day. That's 15 days out of the month… That's just hanging. That ain't like when we go on trip. We on a trip for a week, and that's every day. Like imagine being in a casino. They give you a glass of Don like this and motherf****r you in there 10 hours a day.

"Imagine how many of them motherf****rs you go through," Iverson continued. "That s*** might be like four or five bottles… I think I had a flu or some s*** one time. [Blue] was like, 'Look AI, listen. You don't play no more, and you ain't never been no workout motherf***er anyway.' So he said, 'So all that drinking you doing, that s*** just sitting in you.' It's just sitting there. You ain't going out and running every day like you did when you was playing."

That's rather reckless. Iverson needed a reality check, and fortunately he got one. He simply couldn't continue in that manner once his playing days were over.

Iverson says he has now promised God he would never drink again , and intends to keep his word. Now this is easier said than done, but the 51-year-old realized the negatives of drinking outweighed the positives greatly.

"Evaluating myself, evaluating my life, evaluating where I was at that point," Iverson said. "Evaluating myself in the sense of really thinking about the good it was doing and the bad it was doing. What good was it doing? And how much bad was it doing? And the bad outweighed it a lot, and not so much of what it was doing to me physically, but more so of my decision-making… Not caring about certain things.

"Letting things happen around me, my surroundings, and then other people taking advantage of the fact that I was drinking the way I was," Iverson said. "I just felt like my growth depended on it. My maturation depended on [it]."

Iverson was going down a really dangerous path, and he's fortunately off it now. Alcohol has ruined many lives, and it thankfully won't ruin his.

Iverson was one of the greatest players of his generation. He spent 14 seasons in the NBA and won an MVP and four scoring titles. Iverson also made 11 All-Star and seven All-NBA teams, and was named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.