golden state warriors football (Photo: Warriors Tumblr account)
WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — As the San Francisco 49ers played against the Seattle Seahawks yesterday in the NFL’s NFC Championship, it was clear who Golden State Warriors forwards Andre Iguodala and Harrison Barnes were rooting for.
Don’t count Stephen Curry as a 49ers fan, though. His allegiances will remain with the Panthers, although he did lend his “support”.
“Kudos to the 49ers for getting it done (against the Panthers),” Curry said last week, “I always support the Bay Area. I won’t jump on the bandwagon. I’ll stay loyal to my Panthers, but I’ll definitely support (the 49ers), hope they do well.”
Iguodala, who became a 49ers fan while growing up near Chicago, recently tried to collect on a bet against Stephen Curry and Kent Bazemore, North Carolina natives, after the Niners defeated the Carolina Panthers in last week’s divisional championships.
When quizzed about the specifics bet, such as if his loss would affect daughter Riley’s college fund, Curry replied, “Nah, we’ll be alright, I might have to not eat a salad for lunch, just get the regular entree, but I’ll be alright.”
“Steph owes me what I paid him the first time they beat us, so I’m expecting my money back,” Iguodala said after practice last week, “Yeah, we’re even now. And Kent. I had to pay two people that day. I didn’t like that.”
Alas, with the Seahawks’ victory yesterday, it appears that Iguodala might owe at least one other bettor.
“All the guys who my team has beaten, somehow they’ve become Seahawks fans and they wanna beat us,” Iguodala said, “The biggest Cowboys fan in the NBA is now a Seahawks fan for the week: Jermaine O’Neal. Crazy.”
When we took to Twitter to report that, we got the following answer from O’Neal:
@LetsGoWarriors to clarify, I said that I thought that Seattle would win in there building because of the crowd noise! But I am a cowboysfan
— Jermaine O'Neal (@jermaineoneal) January 14, 2014
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Iguodala had these responses:
I be lyin to the media all the time!
— Andre Iguodala (@andre) January 14, 2014
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@jermaineoneal is a real cowboy fan. I l said he was goin for Seahawks! He sick right now y'all doubt in his loyalty!
— Andre Iguodala (@andre) January 14, 2014
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All in good fun.
As for yesterday’s game, Barnes wrote on Facebook:
…while Iguodala tweeted…
Praying for bowman
— Andre Iguodala (@andre) January 20, 2014
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Today after practice, we asked Iguodala what he thought of the game.
“I missed it. I didn’t even know what happened. Who won?”
After the laughter subsided, Iguodala gave his real thoughts.
“It was a good game last night actually. A couple of questionable calls — I can’t get fined for talking about the refs, right?” Iguodala asked.
“Yeah when our kicker got ran into, it’s unsportsmanlike conduct, it’s 15 yards, we up 10-0, we come down make a drive, we score, we up 17-0 or we up 13-0. Difference-maker,” he summed up.
“My man (NaVorro Bowman, in reference to his non-called fumble recovery while tearing his ACL), dies on the ground with the ball, eight or nine people jump on him. Man, they get the ball back. Second half, I kind of sensed that momentum was just going to Seattle.”
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