WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — “Who asked for me?” Andre Iguodala said this morning while sitting down in the interviewee’s chair at the Golden State Warriors shootaround in Oakland today. “I want to know why.”
It might have been Ramona Shelbourne of ESPN, here to broadcast tonight’s game between the Warriors and the visiting Houston Rockets. It might have been Monte Poole of CSN Bay Area, local broadcast affiliate. Or it might have been Rosalyn Gold-Onwude, Warriors sideline reporter.
Whomever it was deserves a pat on the back, because Iguodala was on-point today. No, not necessarily in his actual shootaround of jumpshots. Not really in the usual cautionary answers he gave when asked about the Warriors success and how to deal with the injured-but-winning Rockets, although those were good.
No, Andre was on fire today as an impromptu stand-up comedian.
“Does that mean you don’t want to hang out with us or something?” said a reporter before the real interview began.
“You got it, ding ding ding ding ding!” Iguodala smiled.
Oh, there was a follow-up on whether that meant he wanted to go take a nap instead, to which he replied that he doesn’t take naps, but I digress.
A reporter asked, “You can be a pretty objective judge of what’s going on with you and your team. Are you able to get a feel for how much better you guys can be, whether you can get a little better, or a lot better, I mean, how much room do you have to grow still?”
“Uhhh, I don’t know if I can answer that,” Iguodala dead-panned.
Luckily, he did explain a little.
“We’re winning, so I can’t be — guys always say (that) I always got something to say. That’s Draymond (Green). Draymond group texts something and he’ll be like, ‘Shut up, Dre, I don’t wanna hear your input,’ so I’m just gonna be quiet.”
Is he saying Iguodala is too harsh?
“Yeah, I’m too harsh.”
Nitpicky?
“Yeah, I’m the nitpicker.”
Somebody has to be, though, right?
“That’s true. We have a loooong way to go actually. NBA’s down right now, let’s be honest with you guys, but fans, please keep watching!” Iguodala said, winking.
ESPN’s Shelbourne, who will probably have an article out soon about the Warriors players’ transition from Mark Jackson to Steve Kerr — and probably not as scathing as Lacob’s recent managerial perspectives — asked Iguodala, “Mark had such a loud presence in the room, had such presence about him in life, while obviously Steve is a little more soft-spoken, but what are the other differences between them?”
“Ummm,” Iguodala pondered, “One’s white, one’s black.”
[Reporters burst out in laughter.]
“That’s all I can tell. That’s all I know.”
Don’t worry, he cleared that one up quickly.
“Nah, they’re both great guys. I ain’t gonna fall in that trap,” Iguodala explained. “They’re good guys. I like both of them. I talk to Mark all the time.”
I thought, Oh, whew! Way to diffuse that one, Andre. Funny, though!
Oh, but he wasn’t done dropping bombs.
“Steve went to Arizona so, you know, we come from the same basketball master.
“Not in slave terms, but in Taekwondo terms.”
Wut?!?
“You gotta cover every angle now. You have a marvelous day!”
And with that, Iguodala effectively dropped the mic as he got out of the chair and walked towards to the locker room. Probably to take a nap.
[NOTE: The featured image of this post is an old Halloween costume from Iguodala’s Instagram account. It just so happened to be of a martial arts character, so it seemed to fit the subject. Try to have fun with it!]Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
