Subscribe
Follow Us
Andre Iguodala is a former All-Star, the 2015 NBA Finals MVP, the vice president of the NBPA, a renowned sixth man and a veteran leader. You can add clairvoyant to that list of accolades, as he recently told the story of how he anticipated his own trade from the Golden State Warriors, the possibility of a Kevin Durant sign-and-trade and even landing with the Memphis Grizzlies:
“Yo, I got this crazy story,” Iguodala confided on Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. “No one knows. No one knows this story. But I have a sense that something is going down; Bob Myers and I are pretty cool. We have our conversations, so we’re on the same page. It was, ‘It might happen, but it might not. Most likely, it will. So, we’ll see.’
“So, I’m texting my wife, telling her I’ll probably get traded because I think it’s 100 percent sure, even though everyone else is saying, it’s only a chance. Then, once KD left, I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’ll probably get traded. They’re probably going to do a sign-and-trade, so they can get something back, to at least get assets for him.’ No one was thinking that. But I was thinking they’ll want to get assets back because they can’t just let him go. And they’ll probably move me as well. So, she asked me where I thought I would go. I said, ‘I don’t know, I’ll probably end up in Memphis or some s**t.’
“She says, ‘For real?’ I was like, ‘Maybe. But probably not. I don’t know.’
“The next day, I got the message. It was Memphis. I fell out laughing.”
While the last part seemed to be sheer luck, Iguodala managed to manifest his very future in one short conversation. The Warriors would indeed seek to get something back instead of losing Durant for nothing in free agency, executing a deal for freshly minted All-Star D'Angelo Russell and hard-capping them. That forced Bob Myers' hand, who soon dealt Iguodala and a first-rounder to the Memphis Grizzlies, who now seek another first-round pick for any team hoping to land the veteran.
Iguodala, who still has the texts with his wife Christina on his phone, finds the whole event serendipitous, even if this summer has been a struggle for him as he tries to make his way out of a rebuilding team in hopes to finish his career with a contender.
