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GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 24, 2018

Andre Iguodala

Oakland, California

Q. A lot of people have been talking about what this team's motivation is. For a player been in the league for 14 years and three titles, you've accomplished just about everything you could accomplish, what's your motivation at this stage of your career?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I mean, I think when you get a little older, it's about just trying to stay at the highest level that you can. You know you tailor off on the slow decline not one of those drastic declines. It's really about that.

It's actually more motivation than you think, just continuing to prove that you can still play at a high level and so just being in the gym a lot, working out, keeping your body right. Pretty focused summer.

Q. What did you think about the tournament, golf tournament over the weekend and do you find motivation on watching Tiger come back like that?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I don't personally find the motivation. I think I'm pretty locked in as far as myself. But I was watching the entire four days and it's pretty in tune what was going on. It was a good week for golf. Interesting watching everyone run on the fairway coming in, it was funny to watch.

Q. Last year if you remember media day was a huge circus after you guys won and seems like you would think it would be the same thing this year around, but do you think LeBron's arrival to LA today kind of takes the focus off you guys perhaps today, maybe even lessens some of the pressure this season.
ANDRE IGUODALA: I think there's something there but I haven't thought too much on it. But I think for me it was just we got a game Saturday. So that's crazy to think about, feel like we just ended the season yesterday.

So just taking it a day at a time, just trying to enjoy the game. I do think -- I do think that actually helps us a little bit. It's not as much of a circus. You just enjoy the day to day being around the guys. You can kind of be relaxed a little bit. Don't always have to be looking around, see who is looking at you from afar and kind of keying in on your every move and everything won't be a headline coming from here. There's other places where the media will be locked in on. So actually see it as a positive.

Q. Andre, last year, I know you paid a lot of attention to growth and development of the roster and the team and so forth. There's a lot of talk about how difficult last year was, how challenging it was. What are the signs of growth you saw last year that maybe can apply to this year make you guys better this year?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Well, I think we had a lot of injuries and I think it was more injuries than people noticed. So we had to really get over the hump. We had to fight with a lot of things, deal with adjustments with the lineups, it was a lot of the roles were changing from on a nightly basis, one night you may play five minutes and the next night Nick Young was playing 45 minutes. So it was kind of a roller coaster with your role, and I think the culture we've built, guys are able to have the right approach going into every single game. You may not know what your role was tonight but you would embrace whatever it was and we have some times it didn't go well. We had a stretch at the end where four of our starters were out, four All-Stars were out. And I thought that was some of our best basketball. We all said, look, this is the situation; everyone can take advantage of. And just having a right mindset can carry over. You kind of set up good karma for yourself.

Q. Steve Kerr said he thinks the biggest leap with players comes between that first and second season. So do you agree with that and if so what is it between that transition that leads to that development?
ANDRE IGUODALA: The second season you can -- you pretty much have a good grasp on the offense. And you can extend on it. The first year is always the toughest year. You look historically over some of the teams. You talk about like the Atlanta Hawks, they had four All-Stars one year and that was their second year together. I think it seems like it comes from Popovich his crew, coaches that go implement a system into a new place and they really do a better job of executing than the second season.

We've seen that here. Our first year we were able to win it but next year we won 73 games and our offense seemed to be clicking and KD coming in, his second year we extended a little bit as well so we're going to continue with that progress and bringing in boogie, we look for -- we don't know after this year, but we definitely can expand on what he brings to the table and having that low post presence that we never had.

Q. You've been known as kind of a mentor to some of the younger players. How does that extend off the court when you get to like some of the investment opportunities that you've looked at, and just kind of mentoring them on money matters?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Well, you try to just give them to have a reality check more so than anything. You see the glitz and the glamour of being a professional athlete but you don't understand taxes, as an example. There's a funny skit on Instagram Spice Adam has, when the rookie gets the first check and he's happy. Then he opens it and he says who is FICA and who is 401K. You start to realize, it isn't what you thought it was.

But like I said, our front office and basketball operations do a great job of bringing in good personnel, good kids who want to learn, who want to be in this league for a very long time. So they're open and they all come in with an open mind and it's not just me, it's Draymond. It's Steph. It's KD. It's Klay. We've got a very good locker room. We had David West last year. So we've done a good job of doing it and the right coach.

Q. This might be a difficult question for you to answer while you're still as a player, but do you consider yourself a Hall of Fame player do you feel you've had a Hall of Fame career, even though the numbers are a little different. I don't know if anyone's asked you that before.
ANDRE IGUODALA: I don't. I've got both sides. I know guys who belong that aren't in there and guys who are in that in my opinion aren't better than some of the guys that aren't. I don't think so. If it happens, it happens, it's a very unique group. Really happy, Maurice Cheeks got in. I thought he was deserving to get in a long time. Happy for coach. And other than that I just enjoy the game and what comes with it comes with it.

Q. [Inaudible]?
ANDRE IGUODALA: It's not part of the motivation. I think you gotta just let things happen organically and you've got to let them happen. You know what you put in. You kind of try to sow some good seeds and hopefully reap the benefits of it. I'm just trying to put in, do the things the right way whatever my role is embrace it and help the team win.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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