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A wise insane man once said: "of everyone on Golden State, open shot, fate of the universe on the line, the Martians have the death beam pointed at earth, you better hit it? I WANT IGUODOLA."
The man that would hit that shot to save the world, Andre Iguodola, announced his retirement today after 19 seasons (since we technically have to count last season). He leaves the league after one of the more impressive runs, I pause on saying overachieving because he always had incredible tools and athletic ability, but four-time NBA champion, 2015 Finals MVP, two-time All-Defensive team, is pretty wild.
After being selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the ninth overall from the University of Arizona, he was immediately thrust into the starting job playing all 82 games in five (!!) of his first six seasons which is something that simply won't happen much again. Playing on some okay Sixers teams and making the playoffs getting bounced by higher seeds, he was eventually traded to the Denver Nuggets in 2012 but I'm skipping that since we wanna talk about Warriors Iggy.
When Iguodala got to the Warriors in 2013 he was in that weird transition of going from being an All-Star to role player on one of the younger teams with an up and coming superstar in Steph Curry even though we had no idea how much of a star. That transition period eventually led to a tough conversation with new Warriors coach Steve Kerr, asking him to come off the bench to really unlock what the team could do. He has said he wasn't really about doing it at first, and pretty reluctant but taking one for the team turned into a dynasty, a controversial Finals MVP, and the lineup known as the death lineup.
Not sure anyone has ever left behind more of a confusing case for the Hall of Fame and let me tell you: the cause of so many intense arguments in barber shops across the country for years to come and I can already hear Stephen A. Smith yelling about it to a random guest rapper on First Take or something. The fact of the matter is only two Finals MVP's are not in the Hall of Fame, Chauncey Billups and Cedric Maxwell, the latter is more of a toss up when it comes to accolades but Iguodala simply can't get in until Chauncey gets in.
Hall of Fame cases aside, Iggy turned what would have been a fairly decent "Oh, I remember that guy, he had dope dunks" career into a real championship legacy and that's gotta be one of the reasons he's beloved across fan bases and contemporaries.
...Sucks he's gotta see that LeBron block forever and ever though.
