NEW YORK -- Larry Brown called in his players to conclude Team USA's first practice, motioning for a huddle at the free-throw line. Only one of those players could be seen and heard clapping loudly as he marched into the scrum.

It's the same guy who isn't supposed to love Brown's practices.

It's Allen Iverson, and you could say he was definitely ready for this one. On the floor, Iverson sported a pair of high-tops with an American flag stitched onto each tongue. As soon as he got off the floor, Iverson covered his head with a Stars-and-Stripes doo rag. He was clearly thrilled and moved to be representing his country, and he was likewise ready to scoff at the first suggestion that there would be some tension or awkwardness playing for Brown, now that Iverson will no longer be playing for Brown in Philadelphia.

"Everybody was making such a big deal over it, thinking it was going to be a big deal," Iverson said. "But it wasn't."

	Allen Iverson was actually happy to be at practice with Larry Brown on Sunday.

Iverson also tossed out the words "fun" and "easy," and his first practice as a member of his country's senior national team -- the team that awarded a roster slot to Mike Bibby before AI got his invite -- was indeed rather comfy. From Iverson's perspective, there was just one source of irritation about this practice, and it came after practice, when someone asked him about Kobe Bryant.

"It's just something I don't like to discuss or want to discuss, because I've been through that in my own life," Iverson said. "You have people speculating on what they think happened, and everybody is talking about it. It's a big media circus, and it takes away from the realness of what went on. You turn it into a comedy show instead of something real. It's just unfair to speak on it and say what I think. I just wouldn't do it. I got respect for Kobe and I got respect for the alleged victim, and I won't do that."

He wasn't done answering, either.

"I feel, in a situation like this, people should be quiet until something happens," Iverson continued. "But everybody just keeps yapping and yapping and yapping and (nobody knows) what happened but the two people that were involved. I hope (Bryant doesn't) have planes flying over his house and people camping out in front of his house all day and taking pictures of his dog, his kids and all that. ... I just hope he's not going through those types of things, because it's not right. If he's innocent, that's terrible. If he's guilty, then, hey ... but if he's innocent, I feel so bad. Because that's going to scar him for the rest of his life."

It was just last summer that Iverson, accused of threatening two men with a gun, found himself facing a similar glare to what shadows Bryant today. All charges against the NBA's 2000-01 MVP were eventually dropped, but not before swarms of reporters and photographers camped outside Iverson's mansion in the days before he turned himself in.

That was more of a Philly frenzy. The rape charges against Bryant, widely considered as wholesome of a superstar as the NBA has, have sparked a worldwide media watch with seemingly no time constraints. That's why, if there was any surprise Sunday at John Jay College, it's that Iverson didn't have to field a Kobe question until the end of a half-hour interview session.

The sheer volume of Kobe-related coverage so far suggested that there would be waves of Kobe questions, for every member of Team USA. Especially with its training camp sprouting in the reporter-laden borough of Manhattan, before Brown's squad proceeds to Olympic qualifying in Puerto Rico from Aug. 20-31. Even Brown gave a nod last week to the story that threatens to hang over the league all season, saying last week that it was "absolutely" important "in light of what's gone on this summer" for the Yanks to not only dominate the qualifier but to also do so in the most sporting manner possible.

Of course, since Bryant was supposed to be on this team -- before shoulder and knee surgeries ruled him out under any circumstances -- these are the guys who will be asked to react to anything that happens in the Bryant case for the rest of the month. It's a story that threatens to hang over the league all season, and certainly longer if Bryant is ever convicted, and New Jersey's Jason Kidd conceded that the players will inevitably be discussing the case amongst themselves before long.

	“	It's just unfair to speak on it and say what I think. I just wouldn't do it. I got respect for Kobe and I got respect for the alleged victim, and I won't do that. ”
		— Allen Iverson

"We just hope everything works out," said Kidd, who has rehabilitated his image remarkably in the wake of a domestic-assault arrest in early 2001.

Said Tracy McGrady: "Kobe has been my man since I came into the league, but we're going to stay from it (publicly). We're trying not to get caught up in that."

The leader of that movement? You guessed it.

Answer: Iverson.

Because of his contentious history with Brown ... and a few brushes with the law before last summer ... and even because of his well-known aversion to practice ... because of all that and more, Iverson was one of the last players to make this roster. The selection committee reasoned that Bibby, a better shooter and more willing passer, would fit in better.

No one is saying so now. Not until the games start will Iverson convince folks he's willing to embrace a complementary role in this starry environment, with Brown bound to be harder on him than anyone, but he's oozing more than patriotism.

Underneath all the flags, Iverson says it "means everything to me" that he was finally selected, whenever and however it happened, without USA Basketball forcing him to "cut my hair off and laser my tattoos off and wear a suit." As a result, an inspired Iverson wants to spend his next two summers representing all the people in all the countries who "have flaws and have made mistakes."

Another big job for the little man. But he likes big jobs. Iverson likes this one so much that he was really clapping on the practice floor Sunday, and not because the session was over.

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here. Also, send Stein a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.