It seems Allen Iverson noticed the other day he isn't going to be on the USA Basketball team for the 2004 Olympics.

He thought right. He shouldn't be on the team.

And no, it's not about the cornrows or tattoos or the fact he doesn't own a hat or any clothing that fits correctly. You don't always get what you want. And you don't always get what you deserve. You can't spend a career with defiance being almost an obsession and then expect to be embraced by everyone. Perhaps it's not fair. But it is life.

	Why should A.I. be accepted by the world when he's made a life out of rebelling against it?

Ask Isiah Thomas.

He should have been a member of the 1992 Dream Team. It was the greatest collection of basketball talent ever assembled. It wasn't a team built to win games, but more a traveling commemoration of American basketball. It was to represent the NBA's greatest era, the 1980s, and you don't get done with your fingers when counting the best before you come to Thomas. Perhaps Michael Jordan and then Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. But no one else was close.

Yet, Thomas wasn't selected. How could this be? Perhaps it was the curse of the little man, the kid that was stepped on and pushed around growing up and whom no one gave a chance to succeed. Thomas was that kid, like Iverson, but without the ankle irons. Thomas had to be better and tougher than everyone else just to climb up to the playing field. When that happens, some people get mad. Some people get rubbed the wrong way. Perhaps you don't do everything the fairest or best way. But for you, it's about making it against all the odds.

Thomas did, and then they didn't want him around. Jordan, sure. But it wasn't just him. They were wrong, of course. But they had the votes. They couldn't always beat Thomas on the court, so they kept him off when they could.

And so we come to Iverson. In comparison, Thomas would be an alter boy. Some of his family members went to jail, but he never did. Thomas smiled. Iverson snarls. Perhaps Iverson has more reason to, with a bogus imprisonment. But there's that attiutude from Iverson, daring you to tell him what not to do, and then Iverson tries to do it in case you were about to tell him what not to do.

Iverson has been arrested for cause. He hasn't exactly been the greatest team leader, either. Great player? Sure. On your top-10 lists in the NBA, he has to be on every one. There are a dozen players going to the Olympics, so it's not about gathering the NBA's best players for show like it was in 1992. With one exception.

And forget this notion about the U.S. needing to gather its forces to retain its international supremacy. Last summer's team in Indianapolis for the World Championships was the ultimate dysfunctional basketball family with a wacky dad and confused kids. And even with that, had Jason Kidd and Ray Allen stuck around, they still would have won the gold.

They didn't like hearing Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal weren't there, so they wanted to show who the stars were. Eventually, they just got tired of listening to everyone from the coach to the critics. So this time, some of the NBA's best -- like Bryant, Garnett and Duncan -- will be there, and the U.S. team will win again.

Not that Iverson's play exactly fits with an All-Star team. Although he wouldn't make it lose, Iverson is a bit of a loose cannon -- actually, one unhinged and rolling around the deck of the pirate ship with its fuse burning. His greatness stems from his refusal to be beaten -- his defiance on the basketball court as well as in life. He'll lose, but he won't stop going after you. A team filled with All-Stars is not exactly the right setting for that. Could Iverson accept a role? Maybe, but he never has.

And the rumor is there'll be practice. Iverson had that laughable press conference last May during which he mocked the idea that practice was so important. It's not always. Jordan read a lot during practices over the years. The point was not to belittle the notion that practice was beneath you and not everyone else. Iverson subsequently apologized, but it was hardly the first time he's rebelled.

	But you can't spend a lifetime challenging and flouting society and convention and then be the guest of honor at the cotillion. It doesn't work that way. Sorry. Sometimes we all wish it did. Then they'd excuse some of our mistakes. But they don't.

Although Larry Brown, the coach of the U.S. Olympic team, could do nothing but invite Iverson since Iverson is his best player the rest of the year, Brown's issues with Iverson's desire to ignore team rules has been a source of friction for years. Iverson came late, missed practices and left early. He could be counted upon in the games, but nowhere else.

It wasn't that Iverson didn't care about the team or his teammates. It's just that no one told Allen Iverson what to do!

Iverson is as tough a competitor as there is in the NBA. He ought to wear sneakers on his elbows, knees and face for all the time he spends being knocked to the basketball floor. He bounces back up and attacks again and again. His desire and determination are inspirational.

But you can't spend a lifetime challenging and flouting society and convention and then be the guest of honor at the cotillion. It doesn't work that way. Sorry. Sometimes we all wish it did. Then they'd excuse some of our mistakes. But they don't.

America doesn't fear Iverson playing for the Olympic team. Charles Barkley was a boor on the 1992 team. Certainly, Derrick Coleman, Larry Johnson and Shawn Kemp were embarrassments in 1994. It's doubtful Iverson would lower himself to those levels.

Who knows what the circumstances really were of Iverson's arrest last summer (in which the charges later were dropped)? Who knows about the other arrests, his crew (to whom he remains loyal, but who often finds its way into trouble), his churlishness at practice and with the media, his threats over leaving the 76ers and Philadelphia many times? It's his world, and he makes it work.

But it doesn't mean it has to be celebrated elsewhere. It's not Uncle Tomism. No one says Iverson has to change. This is not an issue of racism. There's a certain code of behavior and responsibility for all citizens of a society. It's not illegal to ignore or reject it, but that also doesn't come with celebration.

The Olympics is nations on display, showing off their best and delivering a representation of their society. Sure, Iverson is a big part of that society. But it's the part of which we're not always proud. Iverson may have needed to become the person he is to get from where he came to where he is now. But that doesn't mean he has to go with everyone else.

He'll have to satisfy himself with Olympian efforts on the basketball court instead of the worldwide stage.

Sam Smith, who covers the NBA for the Chicago Tribune, writes a weekly column for ESPN.com.