Andre Igoudala signed for the first time with the Warriors in 2013, and there was no way to know that the franchise was about to change forever in the coming years because a young Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Drayond Green still all all- Stars had to be at that point.
Fast Vooruit 12 years from that moment, and the former basketball player is celebrated last weekend in Chase Center for winning four NBA titles in Golden State, including an NBA Finals MVP in 2015, which led to the first championship of the club in four decades.
That is why the organization decided on Sunday to honor their ex-Big-Man by withdrawing its No. 9 sweater and raising the trusses. “It was a wild journey, but it was a beautiful blessing,” Andre said in his speech, while the Warriors stood opposite the Mavericks this weekend.
This makes Igoudala the seventh player in the history of Golden State to retire their song, with Rick Barry (24), Wil Chamberlain (13), Nate Thurmond (42), Al Attles (16), Chris Mullin (17) and Tom Meschery (14).
“He wanted to participate in what was going on because he saw how special it was,” said coach Steve Kerr. “That was a coup. I mean, the Warriors didn’t exactly get many free agents. So to sign Andre was clearly one of the most important movements to this whole thing. “
Andre was already unbelievable 30 years old when he arrived in San Francisco for the first time and never got off the bank during his career, until Kerr decided to give him a different role.
“That was the ultimate validation of everything I have always believed in the game, and I think other people acknowledge that,” acknowledged the Golden State Tactician. “It was not lost with someone, the sacrifice and the success and everything that happened together.”
Certainly, his biggest contribution resulted in the 2015 Championship Run, when he had an average of 16.3 points, 4.0 assists and 5.8 rebounds while the Warriors defeated the Cavaliers in six games.
“It is rare in professional sports to see a man who is still a bit in his first kind of backseat, or actually voluntarily goes out the way for the emerging boys,” the 41-year-old Iguodala said the Warriors before The mavs.
