Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson will pay for the funeral of a man who died three years after he was shot for refusing to hand over his Iverson jersey to a group of teens.
Kevin Johnson died after his family chose to remove his life support. He was 22.
The teen robbers stepped to Johnson on June 24, 2003 as he waited for a train. When he refused their demands to give up the jersey, Johnson was shot in the back of the neck by Robert Ferguson, who is now serving a prison sentence for attempted murder.
The shooting initially left Johnson paralyzed and in a wheelchair. Eventually, Johnson ended up on a ventilator. Last week, the ventilator failed, and Johnson suffered irreparable brain damage. The family chose to take him off it.
Johnson's funeral expenses will be covered by Iverson. He will be buried in Iverson’s No. 3 Sixers jersey.
"If they were that serious about that jersey, I would have given them 100 jerseys if they wanted it," Iverson said. "It was just tough, just to see somebody die for something senseless like that, over a jersey, over something material."
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