SAN FRANCISCO >> Andre Iguodala remembers it all like yesterday.
The joy he observed on the court and in the crowd during that playoff series as a member of the opposing Nuggets. The unlimited potential of that baby-faced assassin with unlimited range. The pay cut he took to be a part of it. The championships he predicted at his introductory news conference.
“It was just intuition,” Iguodala said. “I didn’t think it’d be four. The stars were just aligned.”
Even Iguodala’s loftiest visions when he signed with the Warriors back in 2013 as a veteran entering his 10th NBA season would look modest in comparison to what’s in store next month.
Iguodala will become the first member of the Warriors’ dynasty to have his number retired, the organization said Thursday in a long-anticipated announcement.
Iguodala’s No. 9 will go into the rafters Feb. 23 in a pregame ceremony before the Warriors’ game against the Dallas Mavericks and, yes, Klay Thompson.
A father, a venture capitalist and the president of the NBA Players Association, Iguodala said he still hasn’t taken time to soak in the glory, even since retiring in 2023. But maybe, for a night.
“What the Warriors team has set up, they’ve done something really special,” Iguodala said. “I think it’s going to blow folks out of the water. It kind of helped me reflect.”
Iguodala joins Rick Barry (24), Wilt Chamberlain (13), Nate Thurmond (42), Al Attles (16), Chris Mullin (17) and Tom Meschery (14) as the seventh player in franchise history to receive the honor, and that number figures to grow to double-digits before long with the additions of Nos. 11, 23, 30 and 35.
“It just means I’m the oldest,” Iguodala, 40, said of receiving the first ceremony between the five core members of their championship runs. “I think I’ll be able to reflect on those guys. Without those guys, I wouldn’t be in this position.
“I think they understand how important I was. But obviously Steph, Klay and Draymond just being so unique in who they are. It’s just a powerful formula. You see everyone trying to duplicate it now, and it’s kind of throwing basketball off. Because they’re one-of-ones, all of them. And obviously KD’s just from another planet.”
Together, they managed to reach the NBA Finals in five consecutive seasons, from 2015-19, and then teamed up again — without Durant — to win an improbable fourth title in 2022.
The fourth championship put Iguodala in elite company, as one of 42 players to ever accomplish the feat, and his 2015 Finals MVP made him one of just 11 to achieve the tandem.
Iguodala never matched the individual numbers from the first nine years in Philadelphia and Denver, but his legacy will be defined by his contributions to winning in the latter half of his career.
“You don’t know when the end is going to be, especially at 10 years. The average is like three and a half now,” Iguodala said. “So for me (at the time), it was just like, I want to get that joy back in playing basketball. … It was just perfect timing on and off the court. But the atmosphere I played in during that playoff series, I just decided I wanted to play in it 41 times a year.”