“Andre Iguodala just needed the extra space!”: When Warriors’ veteran cleared out his young teammate’s locker for not performing well during the 2014-15 season

Warriors veteran Andre Iguodala once cleaned out a sophomore’s locker for underperforming during the regular season

Back in 2014, the Golden State Warriors had been eliminated from the Playoffs in the first round. This led to a change in the coaching staff, and Steve Kerr was appointed as the captain of the ship. Back then, the Warriors had just started seeing success with their backcourt duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. With Steve Kerr on board, Draymond Green was getting more chances as well.

Andre Iguodala joined the Dubs during the 2014-14 season, and entered his 11th season during ’14-15. He was the veteran on the team, a role he’s playing till-date. Iguodala had been to the big stages, and he knew exactly what the team needed for going there.

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Andre played a very important role in player development, not only skill-wise but maturity and growth as a person too. However, his teachings didn’t always come in a simple form. Justin Holiday learned that the hard way.

Andre Iguodala confiscated Justin Holiday’s locker for not playing well

Back in 2014, Justin Holiday was starting his sophomore season in the league, and Andre Iguodala already had big expectations from him. We could see it in the way Iguodala was playing, he wanted Holiday to assume more responsibility.

Andre Iguodala seems to want nothing more in life than to complete a successful lob pass to Justin Holiday.

— Steve Berman (@BASportsGuy) January 10, 2015

However, Justin was failing at the same. He was averaging just 4.3 points and 1.2 rebounds.

Novelist Ethan Sherwood Strauss, who wrote “The Victory Machine: The Making and Unmaking of the Warriors Dynasty”, mentioned an incident between the two.

Iguodala was fed up of Holiday’s poor performances, and he cleaned out Justin’s locker after one game.

“I just needed the space,” Iguodala said with a shrug to Holiday, as narrated by Strauss in his book. Holiday didn’t take Iguodala’s actions and words kindly, and so he fought back only to get another “I just needed the space” reply from the veteran attached with another shady smirk on his face. The two then went at it and had to be untangled by their teammates to cool down.

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Tough love, but that’s how Iggy works. While it did not help with Holiday at that time, his mentorship and work off the court is a part of why the Warriors won three rings in five years.

The Warriors would need some of Andre’s sage leadership tonight, as they face the Celtics for Game 2 of the Finals.