Crossing the line

Instead of acknowledging the importance of seeing the forest for the trees, though, you allowed your emotions over a tough loss to get the better of you. Having just seen the Warriors absorb a one-point setback against the Wolves under questionable endgam

Shame on you, Andre Iguodala. Shame on you for using racially charged words to describe how you feel following Steve Kerr’s decision to rest you and fellow vital cogs Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green for the Warriors’ match against the Spurs yesterday. “I do what master say.” Really? When all your head coach wants to do is look after your well-being? When you’ve earned nine figures by playing a sport? When your station in life is far removed from forebears who literally slaved for survival?

You’re not stupid, Andre, so you know what Kerr did was for your own good. Yesterday was the Warriors’ eighth contest in eight different stops over a two-week stretch, with the schedule requiring you and others in blue and yellow to travel a whopping 11,000 miles. He didn’t want his best charges to ride the pine; in fact, he resisted the notion, seeing as how the Spurs were the scheduled opponents and top playoff seeding in the Western Conference — make that the entire National Basketball Association — hung in the balance. Still, he did what he figured was in your best interests.

Instead of acknowledging the importance of seeing the forest for the trees, though, you allowed your emotions over a tough loss to get the better of you. Having just seen the Warriors absorb a one-point setback against the Wolves under questionable endgame circumstances, you doubled down on the bitterness that had you spewing ridiculous responses to legitimate media queries. When asked about the reason for the outcome, you replied, “We gotta score more than the other team. Yep, they want dumb n----s, so I’m going to give you all a dumb n----.” And when asked about any concerns beyond scoring, you replied, “What would dumb n----s say? ‘Just play harder. Figure it out. Change gonna come.’ You know what we used to say. Change gonna come.”

Later, you would clarify to ESPN that “me and Steve are cool. [People] can think what they want to think.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter who you were referring to when you used such no-nos as “master” and “n----s” to express your sentiments. It matters that you used them. Period. When even Matt Barnes, no stranger to controversy, is moved to exclaim “Whoa” in reaction, you know you crossed the line. And for you to characterize it as a joke actually makes things worse. So do yourself a favor, Andre. The next time you want to say something along the same lines,

stop yourself. You’ll be glad you did.