Iverson returned to practice Monday for the first time since Feb. 2. Iverson was voted an Eastern Conference All-Starter, but skipped Sunday's game to spend additional time with his family. He says doctors are still not sure what is ailing his 4-year-old daughter, Messiah.
"It was tough to leave her and my wife and kids," Iverson said. "But I do have a commitment and an obligation to be with my team and to do my job. But it is rough. I think this is the only thing I do in life where for a couple hours during the game I don't think about nothing but (basketball)."
Coach Eddie Jordan says he has not decided if Iverson will start against the Heat. Iverson has averaged 14.4 points in 25 games since he returned to the Sixers in December.
Iverson said it was tough to miss the All-Star game, won by the East in front of a record 108,713 at Cowboys Stadium.
"In my heart, I wanted to be there," he said. "I wanted my daughter and my kids to see me be there. I wanted my wife to have the opportunity to see something like that. I just think the bigger responsibility was to be with my daughter at that time."
Iverson had been in Atlanta with his family. He refused to disclose his daughter's illness, but said she will soon be treated at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia.
"I can tell she's getting better. Once we got home, she did a lot of running around, but physical things, with her hands and her feet, I can tell something's wrong," Iverson said. "She's energetic and everything."
