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NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS

June 6, 2019

Andre Iguodala

Oakland, California - Practice Day

Q. I'm sure you've seen the incident, a minority owner and Kyle Lowry. What are your thoughts?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I think that the NBA will do a good job of really taking it sort of in the right focus and come up with the right decision. Obviously I'm a player first-type guy no matter what, so don't ever want any player to -- I hope it gets handled the right way. I'll leave it at that.

Q. Is that stuff getting worse, or is it just in the news more than it used to be? Because it seems like it's getting worse.
ANDRE IGUODALA: Well, the climate we're in now, no one is afraid to really express themselves, whether it be through their beliefs, whatever that is. There are incentives to be brave with who you truly are.

Q. The Warriors acted quickly to say he's not welcome back for the rest of the NBA Finals. Are you happy about that?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Happy? I wouldn't say happy.

Q. That they acted swiftly?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Oh, it's good that they reacted in the manner to put out that message that we don't want to condone that and that's not acceptable.

Q. What's your favorite memory from this arena?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Favorite moment from this arena? That's a tough one. That's a really good question. First playoff series here was pretty exciting. It was pretty good. We hadn't priced out many people yet, so it was good.

Q. How about the 54 wins in a row that you guys had across two seasons, is that kind of like a special thing when you guys kept coming back and wing?
ANDRE IGUODALA: No, I didn't even know that. Yeah, I didn't know that one. I think it was just one game at a time. We just got in a good groove and things were in a very peaceful place back then, so it was good.

Q. LeBron on his Instagram said that because Stevens is a minority owner he should be held to a pretty high standard, a higher standard than any other fan. Would you agree with that?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I don't know how to answer that. I don't know.

Q. Would you consider him a representative of the team? Mark Stevens.
ANDRE IGUODALA: I mean, he's a minority owner, so, yeah. When an athlete makes a mistake, he's a representative of the league. So, yeah, I would say so.

Q. Do you know him personally?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Not personally. I may have met him. We have a larger ownership group, so sometimes you meet one or two maybe once or twice and not as familiar with others.

Q. Have you gotten to see the statement from the Players Association? Do you agree if you have gotten to read it?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I haven't. It's so much noise right now around The Finals that it's hard to really see everything. That's something I probably should have seen, but just had a lot going on already.

Q. How much does something like this incident take away from the focus of the team at a point when you guys really need to be able to lock in?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Our team it doesn't affect as much because it's like a 24-hour news cycle with our team outside of that. So we're used to being able to deal with noise and come back on the court and try to focus on basketball.

Q. When something like that happens here, do you worry at all that there could be like a domino effect. You go back to Toronto and maybe those fans are wound up because they saw what happened here?
ANDRE IGUODALA: For their sake, I hope it doesn't happen. I mean, we have had incidents in Toronto already outside the arena. I think we reacted in a calm manner. So it will continue to happen, especially with gambling coming along.

Q. When you say there's incentive to be brave now, what do you mean by that?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I mean people aren't afraid to be who they are. You just pay attention to the news.

Q. Bill Russell is getting the Arthur Ashe Courage Award this year. What, if anything, have you taken from Bill Russell as a social activist?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Well, it's not like it was back then. You couldn't be really brave back then. It wasn't being brave; it was just get in line.

They felt really superior. But he had to really deal with that, not being able to eat in certain places or stay in certain places or not being able to react or defend himself. Just that mindset alone says a lot about a person.

I don't think any of us would be able to keep ourselves poised and in a calm manner in that type of climate. It's getting similar to that, but nowhere near it still.

So that alone, I don't think people realize the restraint he had to have or the long-term thinking he had to process in that split second, his every move in those environments.

Q. Is this more awkward for you because you're not only a solid advocate of players' rights, but you're also someone who is socially conscious beyond that and you're being put in a position where a representative of your team, a minority owner of your team, has put his hands on another player? Does that put you in a difficult situation personally in terms of what you can and can't say?
ANDRE IGUODALA: No, that doesn't. That doesn't affect what I can and can't say at all. I've always been pro-player. It's more so your words or your actions can affect the guys who go out there and you fight with every day on the court. That's what you have to be cautious of.

I've expressed myself too much or I've given you too much at times and you've taken it and you made it a headline instead of it's a human being with feelings, because we're not supposed to have that. But more so, more than anything, it's just protecting the team.

Q. Did a fan ever put hands on you in a game situation or outside arena or anything like that?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I tweeted it not too long ago. Someone just hugged me in a hotel. It was one of those situations where if it was the opposite, I would be in jail. But that's happened.

Q. To clarify, you mentioned the incident in Toronto. Is that anything beyond the Drake stuff?
ANDRE IGUODALA: I don't know. It may or may not be. We don't know the intentions or the reasons why.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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