Return of the prodigal son: Iguodala returns to the Warriors

There are all kinds of players in the NBA. Some of them look like each other. Others have something that makes them unique, but that also elevates them to the height of legends, a small group that has always been in the fight for the conquest of Olympus. And yet there is no one who looks like Andre Iguodala. A man who has known how to adapt and readjust, improve and reaffirm himself, going from being a franchise player with the pretense of greatness typical of youth rather than ego, to a role man but above the rest of the role men there have been. over time. An unshakable defender, a player who put statistics aside to enhance intangibles, who improved everything he touched and who has been committed to glory since joining the Warriors, who he touched with a magic wand in a way that was as unexpected as it was deserved then … but nothing surprising today.

Iguodala began his career with the Sixers, where he coincided with Allen Iverson at the beginning and became the reference of the project later. But things did not go as expected and the top was in 2012, with the seventh game of the Eastern Conference semifinals in which the last litter of Garnett’s Celtics and company prevailed. That’s where the Philadelphia team came, which has not gone beyond that round since they played the Finals in 2001. Not even with Embiid, Simmons and company, an even more resounding failure that has been magnified this year, when they were total favorites against the Hawks but lost advantages of more than twenty points and a seventh home game to enhance the curse that has been with them for too long for such a great history franchise.

Returning to Iguodala, who played his only All Star in 2012, he left the Sixers to join George Karl’s Nuggets, but the team fell in the first round to the Warriors … whom he reached the following year. There, what is today his great legend was forged: three rings and five consecutive Finals which he transformed into six after his arrival at the Heat, in 2020. There, in La Bahía and before moving to the Chase Center, Iguodala coincided in four Finals in a row with LeBron James, with whom he shared training in London 2012, with a gold at the Olympics which was the same at the World Cup two years earlier. His defense over El Rey, very alone in 2015, gave him the MVP, in addition to his contribution in an offense in which he has always been a constant danger, no matter how much some insist on saying otherwise. In 2016, revenge was hatched with a Finals for history, a never-before-seen comeback and an incredible stopper play from LeBron to Iggy, who was already one of the competition’s most respected veterans at the time.

His departure from the Warriors

Two summers ago (as time goes by) the Warriors lost the Finals to the Raptors. The injuries and the excellent work of Nick Nurse’s team they avoided a three peat that has not occurred since the Lakers of Shaq and Kobe (it is said soon) and the culmination of a project that entered stand by with the departure of Kevin Durant and the renewal of the injured Klay Thompson. In the year of the move to San Francisco (goodbye to Oracle), the Warriors (also without Curry due to another injury) are one of the worst teams in the NBA, awaiting a resurrection that has not yet occurred. When Durant’s free agent exit was a given, they tried to get at least something in return. That is why they finally signed a sign and trade with the Nets to stay with D’Angelo Russell (Today in the Timberwolves in exchange for Andrew Wiggins), who had signed to secure his future outside of Brooklyn (he could not continue after the arrival of Kyrie Irving) a maximum contract of 117 million for four years.

In a hurry not to finally be left with nothing, in the Bay they gave in to Durant’s pressure and sent an extra first round to Brooklyn (with enough protection so that it could end up as a second). and released Iguodala’s salary (the last year of the 3×48 million he signed in 2017). Without Durant and without the injured Klay, the competitive situation in the short term was very compromised and a veteran like Igudoala stopped making sense at a rate of 17 million for a season that was already pointing to transition. The hard cap (a salary cap that cannot be exceeded in any way with a contract acquired via sign and trade) was then at $ 138.9 million, an amount the Warriors eagerly dodged by sending Iguodala to Memphis. The Grizzlies, who had the salary margin to take on toxic contracts, took a rebound of two million dollars and a first round with protection top 4 in 2024, top 1 in 2025 and without protections in 2026. And also, of course, to a player who did not want to be there.

The approach was clear: although the Warriors assured as soon as they had the operation that they would remove the Iguodala jersey, they felt compelled to release one of the leaders of their splendor years through the back door. The player, for his part, expected an agreement of buyout to be released by the Grizzlies and sign with a ring contender. Soon the two LA giants, Clippers and a few Lakers with whom he had an obvious connection: Rob Pelinka, the head of their offices, led Iguodala’s career in his years as a players agent. And the Grizzlies, meanwhile, assured that there would be buyout and that they wanted to make another transfer with which to get something else in return. In their own right, they didn’t consider the Warriors’ first round enough and wanted more. And they got some of that by sending Iguodala some Heat, Pat Riley’s, who in his privileged mind has always moved better than anyone on the court, benches and offices.

A resounding return

Iguodala was questioned for his attitude in some Grizzlies in which he refused to play, but from then on, his behavior has always been between faultless and perfect. With the Heat he was the spiritual leader until Riley said enough with that team option that he kept up his sleeve. And the player, 37 years old and far from his best days, is a respected veteran, an inescapable presence, a deity and almost a legend. Away, with total security, of those that make up Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and company. Also of current players like LeBron, Durant or Curry, three figures attached to his person. But his memory will never be fleeting and will always resonate very strongly, especially in Golden State, where with great security you will see your shirt hanging and you will receive a tribute that you will remember with good memory, one that he also has innately, as he has already shown by always being aware of life beyond basketball. And it is that Iguodala is a reader of the Wall Street Journal, studious of the stock market and a guy determined not to end up being “another ruined black“(in his own words). During the lockout from 2011 he worked as an intern at the firm Merrill Lynch, the giant that plows the markets on behalf of the Bank of America.

Now, Iguodala was without a team and the Warriors have played him back in what will be the beginning of the end. The last great adventure. The final chapter of the career of a historical man and, moreover, with a lot of history. Three times champion, part of one of the best teams of all time and also one of the most decisive and talented quintets of all time. The one he formed with Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and, of course, Stephen Curry. The defense over LeBron, the MVP of the 2015 Finals, the championships, the decisive baskets (yes, he has also made them) or the fact of being the very extension of that divinity called Steve Kerr on the court. All that and more is Iguodala, a man who grew up in Philadelphia, but he is the son by right of his true home, the one in which he has forged his legend. Genius and figure. The prodigal son returns. There is still time for one last great adventure. Stop, come when it comes, the best farewell. And well deserved.