Andre Igoudala first signed with the Warriors back in 2013, and there was no way of knowing that in the coming years the franchise was about to change forever because a young Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green were all yet to become All-Stars at that point.
Fast forward 12 years from then, and the former basketball player is being celebrated at Chase Center this past weekend for winning four NBA titles in Golden State, including an NBA Finals MVP in 2015, which led to the club’s first championship in four decades.
This is why on Sunday the organization decided to honor their ex-big man by retiring his No. 9 jersey and raising it to the rafters. “It’s been a wild journey, but it’s been a beautiful blessing,” Andre said in his speech, as the Warriors faced the Mavericks this weekend.
This makes Igoudala the seventh player in Golden State’s history to have their number retired, joining Rick Barry (24), Wilt Chamberlain (13), Nate Thurmond (42), Al Attles (16), Chris Mullin (17) and Tom Meschery (14).
“He wanted to join what was happening, because he saw how special it was,” said coach Steve Kerr. “That was a coup. I mean, the Warriors weren’t exactly getting a lot of free agents. So to sign Andre was obviously one of the key moves to this whole thing.”
Unbelievably, Andre was already 30-years of age when he first arrived to San Francisco, and had never come off the bench during his career, until Kerr decided to give him another role.
“That was the ultimate validation of everything I’ve always believed in the game, and I do think other people recognize that,” acknowledged the Golden State tactician. “It wasn’t lost on anyone, the sacrifice and the success and everything that kind of happened together.”
Certainly, his biggest contribution resulted in the 2015 championship run, when he averaged 16.3 points, 4.0 assists and 5.8 rebounds as the Warriors beat the Cavaliers in six games.
“It’s rare in professional sports to see a guy that’s kind of still in his prime kind of take a back seat, or actually willingly move out the way for the up-and-coming guys,” the 41-year-old Iguodala said before the Warriors faced the Mavs.
