By Brian A. Lester

The situation Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson finds himself in these days makes me shudder as if I was walking through a spooky graveyard on Halloween.

I shudder because the thoughts that keep running through my mind about this disturbing news are not pleasant at all.

When I think of Iverson allegedly barging into a third-floor apartment armed with a gun looking for his wife, Tawana, and his cousin, Shaun T. Bowman, I begin to wonder if this is only the beginning of far worse things to come.

Memories of former NFL stars Fred Lane and Rae Carruth immediately leap into my head. Lane was shot dead by his wife in a husband-wife argument gone bad. Carruth gunned down his pregnant girlfriend in cold blood.

Both instances were shocking, not surprising. Rest assured, the tragic endings that took place in those situations were the culmination of a series of problems and not a one-time deal.

Sure, no one is dead yet in Iverson's case, but the potential for danger is there.

None of us know all of the details about this messy saga Iverson is mired in, and we won't for quite some time. But what we do know is that although Iverson did have a domestic dispute with his wife and eventually kicked her out of their home, there was really no need for Iverson to be armed with a gun when he went off to find her.

That's just being stupid. Iverson should have handled this differently.

What he should have done was go over to his cousin's house and politely ask for his wife so that they could sit down and talk over their problems like normal adults. And when he discovered that his wife and cousin were not in the apartment, there was no need for him to threaten the two men (Charles Jones and Hakim Carey) who were there the time. Leaving peacefully would have been the much wiser option.

Iverson, however, made a bad decision and now faces a barrage of charges, including false imprisonment, criminal trespass, conspiracy and firearms violations. He could get up to 70 years in prison if convicted on all counts, although that probably won't happen. More than likely, if found guilty, he would get a lengthy probation and serve a suspension handed down by the NBA.

The sad thing about Iverson is that I thought he was starting to change. He had shaken the bad reputation he came into the league with and became a role model to children all over the nation. His skills matured as well, as he led the 76ers to the NBA Finals a year ago and garnered MVP honors.

Those days are a long way off at the present moment. Yes, many of Iverson's fans are sticking by him despite it all, but his critics are loving this, pointing out that they knew it would only be a matter of time before he screwed up again.

The hope here, though, is that Iverson will eventually be able to put this behind him and learn a lesson from all of it.

The hope here is that Iverson will never carry a gun again and always do the right thing when it's necessary to resolve a problem with his wife.

The hope here is that Iverson's troubles to do not go any further than they have already because the next time, things could have a decidedly different outcome.

Iverson or someone close to him could end up wounded or even dead. Hopefully, it never comes to that because the mere thought of it makes me shudder.

Brian Lester is a sports writer in Ohio and can be reached via e-mail at BAL4@hotmail.com.