The NBA’s Golden State Warriors are set to make 4-time NBA Finals Champion and 2015 Finals MVP Andre Iguodala’s number 9 jersey the first of the many great players from their recent dynasty to be raised into the rafters of the Chase Center.
Iguodala, 41, was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 9th overall pick in the 2004 NBA Draft. He spent eight seasons in the City of Brotherly Love, making an All-Star Team in 2012, before being traded to Denver in the massive, four-team trade that centered around sending Dwight Howard to the Lakers. Iguodala would play one season in the Mile High City before making the consequential decision to sign with the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2013.
For the Warriors, Iguodala would accept a bench role, becoming the team’s Sixth Man, and bringing his veteran presence to a young Warriors team led by Stephen Curry. During his tenure in the Bay, Iguodala would make an All-Defensive Team, be in the running for Sixth Man of the Year nearly every year, and consistently make deep playoff runs in the ruthless Western Conference during the 2010s.
Iguodala’s career peaked in 2015, when he won the NBA Finals for the first time, earning Finals MVP in the process. He won this award while averaging 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 4 assists per game, while also holding LeBron James to only a below-average 38.1% shooting from the field while directly guarding him.
Iguodala would stick around in the Bay for four more years, making the Finals every season and winning two more rings, before leaving in free agency, signing with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2019. He would never play in Memphis, and was traded to the Miami Heat during the 2020 trade deadline, where he played minimal minutes, but provided important leadership and experience to a young Heat core who would make the Finals during the NBA Bubble in 2020, going on to lose in six games to LeBron and the Lakers, and Iguodala would resign with the Warriors for two more seasons, winning the 2022 NBA Finals in his first season back in Golden State, before retiring in 2023 after 19 seasons in the NBA.
When speaking on the Warriors’ teams he was a part of, Iguodala told ESPN, “I think they understand how important I was. But obviously Steph, Klay, and Draymond, are just being so unique in who they are, it’s just a powerful formula. It would be really hard to duplicate.”
That really sums up the career of Andre Iguodala: never the flashiest and never the best, but he was the prime example of fitting into a role to perfection.
In all, Iguodala was a one-time All-Star, 2015 Finals MVP, 4-time NBA Champion, and an integral piece to some of the greatest teams in NBA history.
His retirement ceremony will take place during the Warriors’ home game vs. the Dallas Mavericks on February 23rd, 2025.
