A word about editors -- they love local coverage. Love it.

So I had this nice bit of local copy all set for today when people started reading the headlines.

Allen Iverson suspected in aggravated assault. Police seek warrant in Iverson case. Iverson's house searched and car impounded. Iverson to be charged.

Then those people started talking. Saying Iverson's nothing but a thug and how he should have been locked-up the whole time and he's a menace to society and drug dealer and a gang member and on and on and on.

I'm sick of it.

Maybe the police allegations are true. Maybe Iverson burst into an apartment complex with his uncle, carrying a gun and making threats while looking for his wife and her cousin. I don't know.

There will be no innocent until proven guilty speech here.

The question I'm posing is why did people react to the news like they did.

Why is it Iverson gets singled out as the symbol of "thug life" (a term that's pretty low in and of itself) trying to exist in some mainstream, corporate world?

He's not the only big-time athlete with a criminal record and, it should be noted Iverson's prior rap sheet is not as extensive as people remember it being.

Media darling Warren Sapp watched his draft status plummet thanks to reports of failed drug tests at Miami; the Clippers' Lamar Odom gets caught toking more often than your significant other notices you checking out the waitress; and Braves outfielder Andruw Jones admitted in court to receiving all sorts of special favors from (paid) friendly fans at Atlanta's infamous Gold Club.

The result: Sapp lives on ESPN, Odom is considered a rising star and people think Jones is cute and playful because he waits to start chasing fly balls until the last possible minute. These people don't have baggage dogging their public perceptions. Why does AI?

The tattoos? No, half the professional athletes in America are covered in ink.

Oh, that's right, the rap album.

The profanity laced tirade that surely would have shocked the world like never before had it ever reached the stores. On the disc, Iverson said words that have previously only been used by mass murderers, Eminem, Phillip Roth and everyone reading and writing this column.

But get this: Iverson's not the only athlete to make a rap album. Remember Shaq and his three platinum albums?

And I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Squeaky-clean Kobe Bryant once made a terrible, unreleased rap album, whose title song "K.O.B.E." featured a Tyra Banks guest shot. And aside from the typical, god-awful athletic boasts it includes a song "Thug Poet," in which he espouses "if you say murder I'm a thug poet."

That's right, Sprite pitchman Kobe Bryant, who during the 2000 NBA finals insisted Philly wasn't his hometown and he wanted to "tear its heart out" then cried when he was booed during this year's All-Star Game, identifies himself as a thug. A thug poet nonetheless.

And people love him. Just look at the little kids in the McDonald's commercials. So why Iverson?

Now I'm no sociologist so this is just a guess, but we love to stereotype and cheap stereotyping doesn't get any easier than Allen Iverson as bad-guy villain. And as long as people get pegged for life, Iverson will always stand beside Tu Pac and DMX in some people's minds (I being the high and mighty column writer am always innocent of such things).

Unless of course the allegations are true, in which case you can disregard everything I said. Except for the stuff about Kobe.