‘Allen Iv3rson’: Shaquille O’Neal on Producing Docuseries About Game-Changing NBA Rival-Turned-Business Partner

Shaquille O’Neal is many things: a four-time NBA championship-winning basketball player, a sports analyst, an entrepreneur, a DJ, an actor and most recently, a film and television producer. Under his production company Jersey Legends, a branch of Authentic Studios, Shaq has been the creative and business force behind “Shaq,” his Sports Emmy-nominated HBO docuseries, the Oscar-winning documentary short “The Queen of Basketball,” and more. His latest project is “Allen Iv3rson,” a three-part documentary series set to release Oct. 23 on Amazon Prime.

The new doc tells the story of Allen Iverson, the NBA point and shooting guard who played in the league from 1996 to 2010, most prominently for the Philadelphia 76ers, sporting the number three on his jersey. He was an 11-time NBA All-Star, a four-time NBA scoring champion and the league’s MVP in 2001. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016. Iverson’s story encompasses far more than just what happened on the court, though.

Iverson grew up in Hampton, Va. He became a star athlete in high school and played AAU basketball, winning the 17-and-under national championship in 1992. In 1993, however, Iverson was accused of starting a fight at a bowling alley in Hampton. He was arrested, tried as an adult, and convicted on the obscure charge of “maiming by mob.” Of the many people involved in the brawl, only Iverson and three other Black men were convicted. His sentence was 15 years in prison with 10 years suspended, but the conviction was overturned for insufficient evidence four months in.

After his release, Iverson finished high school and was recruited to play basketball for Georgetown University, where he attended for two years before leaving to become the first overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft. Over his illustrious career, he made impacts both on and off the court. Unapologetically sporting a cornrow hairstyle and tattoos, and recording rap music during the offseason, he was a force of change in the culture of basketball

Though Iverson and Shaq were competitors on the court, they are now business partners at Authentic. Shaq serves as president of Reebok Basketball while Iverson is VP. The two collaborated on and appeared together in Jersey Legend’s Netflix documentary “Power Moves” earlier this year, and now, Iverson takes center stage, sharing his story in his own words with “Allen Iv3rson.”

The series is directed by One9 (“Iceman,” Nas: Time Is Illmatic”) and is produced by Stephen Curry’s Unanimous alongside Jersey Legends.

“A core part of Shaquille’s business vision has been building a production company that allows him to create content he’s truly passionate about. ‘Iv3rson’ represents that approach and allowed him to take the lead in developing, producing, and marketing a project where he wasn’t the primary subject,” says Colin Smeeton, president, Authentic Studios. “As we expand the Jersey Legends’ development slate, Shaquille has fully embraced his role as a producer, with networks and streaming platforms eager to see what he creates next.”

Shaq joined Variety for an interview on his relationship with Iverson and their road to this latest project.

Let’s start at the beginning, when did you first meet Allen Iverson and what were your initial impressions of him?

I met him in the NBA. I didn’t know much about him in college, but we played against him in a preseason game. He and Nick Van Exel were going back and forth, and I knew he had something. I knew that he was going to be great. And of course, I followed his career, and we ran into each other at the All-Star game and just became good friends. He was a fierce competitor who changed the culture. The reason you see guys doing certain stuff today is because he did it and he took all the bad press with it. Before we came in, nobody really had tattoos, nobody had braids and nobody was wearing a lot of jewelry. He did that, took the brunt of what came with it and withstood all that stuff. And now everybody does it.

At what point in your relationship with Iverson did you envision making a documentary about his story?

I wanted to tell the real story. You know, a lot of people don’t get to tell their story when they’re a celebrity. Sometimes other people can tell your story and paint a picture of anything they want. A lot of the time, when you’re a big name, somebody will make the story unbelievable. So I just had a conversation with him. I said, “Hey, we want to hear from you. We want you to tell your story. We don’t want other people telling the story.” Because he’s a very quiet, enigmatic guy, we just had to have that conversation. And because we’re good friends, he believed in me, and he let my production company take charge.

What was it like collaborating with Stephen Curry and his company, Unanimous, on this project?

It was all good. In our world, we have a saying: “Everybody can eat.” Steph could bring something to the table, his company could bring something and I could bring something.

What about your director? How did you land on One9?

I’ve been in the business a long time and I know who’s who. One9 is edgy and creative, and we didn’t want something that was boring. We wanted somebody that was going to get into it and show us something that we haven’t really seen before.

Once the project was developed, what role did you play when the cameras started rolling?

I’m the president, so my role is to oversee everybody and make sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to do. When you’re the president, you have to be good at delegation. The first thing we did was hire One9. The second thing we did was bring on Steph’s company. The third thing we did was have a conversation about how to proceed. I’m not behind the cameras. I’m not doing the sound, writing the script or anything like that, but my partners and I were able to help each other, delegate and find the right people to make this the best project ever.

And how did the series find its home on Amazon?

In our world, when you come up with an idea, you go and present it to people and whoever takes it takes it. Now, I’ve been in a lot of meetings where the people you’re pitching to aren’t interested or they’re not going in the same direction. In those cases, you have to do something else. But when we pitched this one, they were very impressed and they told us not to take any other meetings.

What do you hope that audiences will take away from this documentary? How is it different from some of the other coverage that Iverson’s story has received in the past?

We’re just hoping that people see the real person. People want celebrities to be perfect, but perfect is in the eye of the beholder. Allen Iverson is perfect to Allen Iverson, and that’s all that matters. That’s why he was able to withstand all the stuff he went through and still become a Hall of Famer. You have to be who you are. A lot of times in our industry, they want us to be certain ways, but Allen has always stood out. He’s gonna do it his way.