The player everyone loves — or loves to hate — Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers, is in the news once again, this time for choosing not to play against Detroit a few days ago after his coach Chris Ford told him he would come off the bench.

This is not the first time Ford has had to place Iverson on the bench, and I'm sure it won't be the last time this season. The first time was Feb. 17, when the team played at Denver and Iverson missed the practice before the game.

"I'm an eight-year starter, and for me to come off the bench, I don't understand how that would help the team," Iverson told the Philadelphia Daily News.

Now, I'm not the smartest person in the world, but when your team has a record of 28-39 and has to fight past Boston and Toronto just to make the playoffs this season, there are only 17 games left and every game counts, not playing period is not going to help the team.

If I don't get to write the game story for a men's basketball game or my column doesn't run on the front page of the sports section every Thursday (usually in color I might add), I don't tell my editor I'm not going to write a story for next week's paper because it's an insult.

It makes me sound like a bigheaded, cocky-attitude-having, Michael Wilbon wannabe, doesn't it? Because nobody cares about it but me.

But, in Iverson's case, when coach Ford told him he would come off the bench instead of starting because he was coming off a knee injury, he saw it as a slap in the face.

If I'm Ford and I know Iverson is missing practices and not showing up to team meetings and thinks he can just play whenever he wants to, I'd want to show him I'm no pushover either. If I'm Iverson and I know I'm the franchise of the team and I've carried the team on my back for eight seasons, I'd throw my weight around too, just because I can.

So I say, What-iz-we-gon-do?

Lately, owners have found that trading the troublemaker on your team is the best way to go. (Look at Terrell Owens going to Philadelphia and Rasheed Wallace going to the Detroit Pistons.) I say trade him. Yeah, he loves Philly and Philly loves him back, but let's face it, he's never going to win a championship there. He needs to move to a team that can keep up with his speed in the open court.

Move him to Dallas, case closed. He'll have an actual supporting team who can score, and the Mavericks will finally have someone with leadership qualities who can lead them past the second round in the Western Conference playoffs. Get rid of Michael Finley and Antawn Jamison and let Iverson run the two spot and Steve Nash will run point.

How's that for an answer to "The Answer"?