Veteran Iguodala warrior off bench for Golden State
Famously passed over by the Raptors for Araujo in 2004 draft, he’s still going strong
OAKLAND— When last heard of, Rafael Araujo was plugging away in the Brazilian basketball league, something of a non-entity in that drab loop, his less-than-mediocre 139-game NBA career firmly in the dustbin of history.
In other basketball news, Andre Iguodala had 15 points and played a vital defensive role in 32 minutes of floor time as the Golden State Warriors won Game 1 of the NBA final. Stings, doesn’t it? Famously passed over for the Brazilian Bust Araujo by Toronto in the 2004 NBA draft, Iguodala is still going strong 11 years later and is one of the key components to a Golden State Warriors team trying to go up 2-0 in the best-of-seven series that resumes here Sunday night.
The six-foot-six Iguoala was instrumental in Golden State’s overtime win in Game 1, stifling Cleveland’s LeBron James — as much as James could be stifled — as the Warriors won 108-100 in overtime.
He is just the kind of smart, tough, savvy veteran good teams have and teams that want to be truly good crave; the kind of player Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri will be searching for this summer.
“Andre is one of the smartest defenders I’ve ever seen,” said Golden State coach Steve Kerr. “I mean, he understands angles, he understands where everybody is on the floor.
“It’s funny to say when a guy gets 44 points (as James did) that the defender did a really good job, but I thought Andre did extremely well, made LeBron take some tough shots.”
Iguodala, 31, is filling a role desperately needed by young teams trying to prove themselves. Basically surrounded by young stars — Stephen Curry, 27; Klay Thompson, 25; Harrison Barnes, 23; Festus Ezeli, 25 — the one-time Philadelphia 76er and Denver Nuggets wing has taken on a leadership role. He gave up his starting role to Barnes at the start of the season but is the veteran Kerr looks to as a defender against an opponent’s best player.
Iguodala harkens back to his young years to remember lessons learned.
“Aaron McKie, when I was a rookie, he was walking me through it, because I was starting and guarding a lot of those guys,” he said. “He always said make it hard for them. The NBA is about scoring, you’ve got a lot of talented players, guys are going to score the points.
“He kind of just gave me the ins and outs of how to be a good defender in this league.”
According to expanded stats of Game 1, Iguodala held James to just 4-for-14 shooting when he was guarding him in halfcourt situations, precisely the kind of veteran defensive presence the Raptors crave.
“A big thing guarding LeBron is angles, right?” asked Kerr. “It’s trying to figure out where he’s going, because he’s looking for teammates, he’s looking to score, there is a lot going on.
“So we have several guys who are capable of spending time guarding LeBron, whether it’s Draymond (Green) or Andre, Harrison, Klay. So we’ve got some options, but we feel like Andre has guarded him the most. He’s been in the league for10,11years. He’s guarded him an awful lot, so we stayed with him.”