Retiring a number from a NBA team is supposed to be a glorious and honorable moment in a athlete’s career.
This offseason, Kevin Durant’s jersey was retired from the Golden State Warriors after he announced he was going to Brooklyn to play for the Nets. Makes sense since he was the big reason the Warriors won their last two championships.
Today, the Warriors also announced they’re retiring Andre Iguodala’s jersey. He was the Finals MVP in their 2015 NBA Championship win but unlike Durant who left in peace, Iguodala had some harsh things to say about the organization and even before the Memphis Grizzlies trade.
Back in May, Iguodala claimed playing for the Warriors is not as fun as it looks.
“Playing for the Warriors is just like playing for Team USA. When you play in the Olympics, you don’t even enjoy it. There’s the anxiety of ‘We have to win. We can’t lose, or we can’t go back home.’ We talk about it on the Olympic team: ‘We can’t go back home without the gold medal, fellas. Got to lock in. Let’s lock in.’ Then once you win, it’s like, ‘Yeah, we got it, we can go back home. Yay, we won, but we were supposed to.”
He also said on 105.1 Breakfast Club that the organization hides injuries and pressures players to return before they’re fully healed. He is a prime example as he claims that he had a fractured bone but Warriors stated it was a bone bruise. He feels they did the same thing to Durant this postseason.
Warriors co-chairman and CEO Joe Lacob had this to say about their 2015 NBA Finals MVP:
“During the summer of 2013, we went through an extensive free agency process in our efforts to sign Andre Iguodala,” Lacob said in the statement. “At that time, we envisioned him becoming a vital part of a young, up-and-coming team with championship aspirations. As we look back six years later, we actually underestimated what his value would be to our team, both on the court and in the locker room.
In what has been well-documented, Andre sacrificed for the betterment of out team and, in one of the stories of this journey, earned NBA Finals MVP honors in 2015. He has been absolutely vital to our success during five consecutive apperances in the NBA Finals and three championships. We thank Andre for all of his contributions and look forward to seeing his number in the rafters at Chase Center.”
Even though he’s currently on the Grizzlies, other teams are targeting him. Reports claim the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks are interested in Iguodala but the Grizzlies will not buy him out.