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GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 25, 2019

Andre Iguodala

Oakland, California

Q. How are you feeling physically?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Good.

Q. 100 percent?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Yup.

Q. Game 1 not going to be an issue?
ANDRE IGUODALA: God willing, no.

Q. Under the current circumstances, should nothing come up?
ANDRE IGUODALA: God willing, no.

Q. You guys are trapping more it seems, it's going well, what elements go into trapping effectively?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Hard work, dedication.

Q. Is this your Rasheed Wallace today?
ANDRE IGUODALA: What does that mean?

Q. I mean short answers to every question or repeating a certain answer.
ANDRE IGUODALA: You want me to ramble? Well I found that when you ramble you make headlines, people take your words outs of context. Not y'all, I said people.

Q. I see.
ANDRE IGUODALA: I elaborated. That wasn't short. That wasn't short.

Q. I wasn't saying. It's just they give me training to not talk over somebody and to wait for them to complete their thoughts.
ANDRE IGUODALA: You knew I was done. You got to learn when someone's done. Know who you're working with. I'm teaching right now, right? Now you don't know.

Q. What did you think of the team's performance in Portland while you were able to watch?
ANDRE IGUODALA: They showed some guts, you know, resiliency, down whatever we were down and being able to cut it down and get back in the game and just keeping the poise. And Steve's been teaching a few things for four or five years and it went unnoticed the last couple games where it came to fruition for us.

Q. What do you mean when you say Steve, when you talk about what Steve has been teaching coming to fruition?
ANDRE IGUODALA: How to cut down leads. Slowly but surely. We did it well.

Q. How big has this break been?
ANDRE IGUODALA: It's been good. It's been good. It's weird though. At one point you want to relax and just enjoy it and another part you got to pay attention every game, you got to know what's going on. You still get antsy, still some anxiety, see some stuff going on so, stuff that human beings deal with, but since we're super athletes no one takes that into account and they don't care how we feel.

Q. Have you gotten in any golf at all?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Nope. You know the answer to that question.

Q. Was there a particular play with the injury that triggered that?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Just a lot of minutes, a lot of over use, that's all, inflammation is over use. It's for real. It just -- I'm old.

Q. You look young.
ANDRE IGUODALA: Yeah, but you can, you can look young and be old or you can be old and vice-versa, whatever you want to call it. You can be young and look old. You can be young and look old. But it just flared up real quick. And we got a good training staff so they're on top of it. It's just, you know, you been playing for five long seasons, like long, long seasons, so it's bound to come up. It's very rare that you see it, so I feel like it's hard for it to be realized sometimes. But my career's almost over so I don't really care, you know. We got a tough series ahead, I'm looking to enjoy it. I'm about to be done playing anyway.

Q. When do you think you'll be done?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Soon.

Q. Soon?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Yeah.

Q. I thought were you going to get another contract after this and another one, now you changed your mind?
ANDRE IGUODALA: No, I ain't changed my mind. If I want to. I can sign a one-year deal.

Q. You could. You can do whatever you want. That's the beauty of free agency.
ANDRE IGUODALA: That's the beauty of sense of self, there we go.

Q. There is something to be said though, right, though like with the body of work that you have put in that you've been able to make deposits to be able to kind of exert your worth?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Yeah, I felt like I had a good year even though like I didn't take off as many games as in the past, so I played more this year, and then it was explosive minutes too. So I felt really good and hopefully I can continue to do it for however as long as I choose, so that's probably the plan. I'm confident in myself that I can do it anywhere, to be honest.

Q. Last two rounds did you see -- obviously those two teams that you guys played, they had to go out for pretty much 82 games in the regular season, and this team has been very conscious of controlling workload. Did you see the difference between a team that controlled workload versus the team that really didn't?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I wouldn't necessarily say that because we still finished first in the West and they were talking about it yesterday as far as sometimes they tried to divide our team or whatever tactics possible from the outside. And no one just -- it's very few, except for our fans, that can just sit back and enjoy what we have been able to accomplish. We're in this era where, I don't know, whatever, we just try to be smart with our season and still accomplish the goal of trying to win first in the West, trying to get first in the League, and we're strategic about it, but it's not like guys are amazing 15 games, 10, 15 games. We're just, if a guy needs a rest because his body says it, it's not, it's for that person, you know, and it's going to benefit him more in the long run. And I feel like everybody has the luxury to do it. I feel like you just build your team around being more complete than some teams. Some teams are more complete than others and if you aren't as complete, you just try to build around that and that should be your goal going forward.

Q. Where are you, on a physical scale of 1 to 10, if 10 is a perfect condition, nothing wrong, like you're 16 years old, where are you on that scale?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I don't know if I'm ever going to be 16 again. I think I already said it, everybody's dealing with something in the post season so you just got to kind of fight through it, but I'm fine.

Q. What was the process feeling like last year, after your injury, getting back to The Finals and what things are relatively easier this go around?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I don't know. Like I said before, we don't really get a chance to enjoy some of our success, because we're always just looking forward, so I don't even know, it's hard to reflect and look back, you're just trying to look forward and I guess reflect when it's all said and done.

Q. Coach Kerr said that this team is unique in that he can collaborate with the players because of your maturity and experience with game planning and strategy. How have you seen that play out over the last season?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I think that you just, a player's input's a big thing. We are able to adjust during the game if we see something on the court and he's very receptive with information that we feel, that we see on the court. You got some coaches that are that way and some coaches tend to be the total opposite of where they make adjustments on their own and they don't want any input and it's kind of like, you know, one voice.

Q. How did you know that Draymond was a different kind of cat?
ANDRE IGUODALA: After he got his money. No, I'm bs'ing.

Q. There's something kind of mystical about his ability to just take over games.
ANDRE IGUODALA: If you just pay attention to him I think you saw that in college a little bit. How many Final Fours did he go to? Things like that. When you go through the draft process, they don't put those attributes into play or they don't evaluate those attributes into play or they don't evaluate those as much as they should. It's always, there's always that vanity play or whatever it may be, your length or how fast you are or how well you shoot or something that it's overlooked and there's things that are underlooked, and winning is something that's underlooked, there's a winning trait and fewer and fewer guys are having it as we are in the, where we're trending in basketball.

Q. What is that about? I don't disagree with you, but I'm curious as to why you think that's the case.
ANDRE IGUODALA: Well social media.

Q. Is it just too much ego?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I don't know, I mean ego is with everything that's involved. The media playing into it and then the parents, obviously, players, business of basketball, everything plays a role into it.

Q. What's it like after --
ANDRE IGUODALA: What's it like to get so many questions and I want to go?

(Laughter.)

Q. In a season where you guys have a game either every day or every other day, to have this break?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I think we try and be smart with it. We got a few guys just trying to get back from injury and it's given us some time to get that rest and take advantage of it. So I think whatever is thrown our way we just try to make the most of it. Whether it be a ton of games we just try and grit through it or you get a little break and you try to use it to your advantage, but have the right balance to make sure guys are getting game shots, staying in shape and keeping their rhythm.

Q. When you look at the arc of your career, how much of it was by design, how much of it was good fortune that you wound up where you're at?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I mean good fortune you can define that a lot of different ways, depending upon the person and what you believe in. So all of it is good fortune, obviously, but with good fortune you got to make the most of your talents, what you've been given. Some guys make the most of the talents, some guys don't. Some guys don't make the most of their talents and still have a ton of success, so just imagine if they made the most of it. So for me it's just all good fortune, but just try to maximize it with the work ethic and trying to make smart decisions, surrounding myself with the right people, trying to grow and mature each and every year, so more good fortune, for sure, though.

Q. Does this team, how has this team or this situation combined or provided the opportunity for you to maximize who you are?
ANDRE IGUODALA: It's helped tremendously and I always say the situation's perfect, but I forget to say vice versa. I remember like 15 years ago Carmelo got an award and he gave a speech and he said, I want to thank myself for putting the hard work in. I have never done that but I'm around that time where I'm like, the same thing the opposite way.

Q. You were here when Shaun came in, when the team signed Shaun, and he was kind of damaged goods at the time.
ANDRE IGUODALA: That's your opinion, that's not a fact.

Q. He was not a hot property at the time.
ANDRE IGUODALA: Opinion.

Q. What was your expectation when he came here? You guys had run through other guys.
ANDRE IGUODALA: That's the way the League can work. Guys can get into situations that don't benefit them all across the board, from superstars all the way down to guys on that edge of being in or out of the league and it's all about getting the right opportunity. I always saw what Shaun can do and I feel like this team you try to maximize the individual just as much as making sure they try to help our team. So just putting him in a good position and he's been able to flourish and confidence plays a key role in that and we try to give everybody confidence.

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