By Lou Dubois (exclusive to No Mas)

Easily one of the most iconic and controversial athletes to ever play in sports-crazed Philadelphia, Allen Iverson’s well-documented NBA career almost never came to fruition. And now there’s a movie that talks all about it.

Famed director Steve James (best known for his work on Hoop Dreams) tells the story of Iverson as a multi-sport high school superstar embroiled in a controversy that if nothing else, brought about a severe racial divide in Hampton, Virginia, the hometown that both the director and the protagonist share. James’ documentary No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson examines the 1993 bowling alley brawl that landed Iverson, then the nation’s top high-school basketball player, in jail along with two friends/teammates. At its core, the movie is as much about race and equality in the south in the early 1990s as it is about a sports star and his divided community.

Since premiering last month at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, the documentary has opened to limited audiences across the country with positive reviews and will air nationally as part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series this Tuesday at 8pm ET. It seemed only fitting to attend a screening of the movie among some of Iverson’s biggest fans during last weekend’s Philadelphia Film Festival Spring Preview, organized by the Philadelphia Film Society.

After watching this film, audiences should leave with a clearer understanding of Iverson the person, who has carried a me-versus-the-world mentality with him through his entire public life. It also gives some insight into what has often been referred to as his rocky relationship with the media. As Iverson told Tom Brokaw in 1993 (and shown in the film), “I felt like I was convicted before I went to court by the media.” Perhaps the most fascinating part of this film, however, is that Iverson and many others involved in this case refused to participate in James’ project.

“I’m not even sure if Allen knows that this movie was made,” producer Emily Hart said in a short Q&A after the screening in Philadelphia. “Through his agent, we were basically told that he would not be participating. That was the response we got from a lot of people on this movie—they didn’t want to reflect on the past.”

The film starts by addressing how important Iverson was to the local community in Hampton, as a multi-sport athlete in football and basketball that many expected to put their town on the national radar. His basketball games had to be played at college arenas to accommodate the large following he’d received.

On Valentine’s Day in 1993, Iverson was at a bowling alley with friends when alleged use of the n-word provoked a nasty brawl between a group of black teenagers and white adults. Iverson was charged with hitting a white woman over the head with a chair, though the only grainy video footage of the evening supported no such claim.

The case received an inordinate amount of national attention, including (as referenced in No Crossover) this controversial Sports Illustrated story by Ned Zerman that was accused of being highly inaccurate. As one Hampton native points out in the movie, the case “nearly tore this town apart” based on race.

As the trial progressed, much of the community felt Iverson was being made an example of by the local judicial system based as much on his celebrity as his participation in the crime. When he was convicted on felony charges under a “maiming by mob” statute designed to prosecute lynch mobs and sentenced to 15 years, the town exploded. Iverson ended up only serving only four months at the minimum-security Newport News City Farm before being released and becoming a mega-star.

The film offers a rare glimpse into Iverson’s character and oft-criticized persona, and he comes off as a charming youth who was burdened with an inordinate amount of pressure from his local community to succeed. At the time, Iverson said a friend quickly escorted him out of the bowling alley when the brawl broke out, knowing there was a lot more at stake for the hoops star than anyone else in the building. But in a fascinating 2006 interview with Stephen A. Smith shown in No Crossover, Iverson said: “I’m not saying I did what they said I did, but . . . I deserved to be exactly where I was at. I went through what I went through because God said to go through it. And I overcame it.”

Whether you think Iverson committed the crime or not, it’s a great documentary that James and his crew weaves together 16 years after the crime. It quickly becomes clear as some of the movie’s central stars are talking that despite a Hall of Fame career and a highly publicized life, many in Hampton still think about Iverson in terms of this trial (and in some cases, don’t want to talk about him for that reason).

The film also seems perfectly timed with Iverson’s recent off-court issues that were written about extensively by Smith, dealing with his addiction to drinking and casinos. To see one of the most transcendent athletes of the past decade before he was a star is a harrowing story not to be missed.

As James told the Philadelphia Inquirer about No Crossover last weekend, “(this film) is about Allen at that time of his life on some level, because it has to be. But really, it’s ultimately a film about the community. The best sports films are never really about sports. They go beyond that. Sports is a great arena to express things about race and class and the American dream and family.”

No Crossover premieres Tuesday night at 8pm ET on ESPN as part of the network’s “30 for 30 Series.” To view further information on the movie and to gather tune-in info, visit the “No Crossover” micro site on espn.com.