Golden State Warriors legend Andre Iguodala possessed all the physical attributes to make it big in the game of basketball from his teenage years. By his own admission, the 6’6″ former forward was a genetic freak. But that didn’t mean he took success on the court for granted.
Advertisement
Bigger men than him had found their way into the NBA and faded just as quickly. Whether it was a lack of form, motivation, or just dealing with one injury after another, life in the NBA can be unpredictable, much like how it is in nature. If you are born at the top of the food chain, there’s a good chance you will make it, right?
Of course, you also need to pick up things earlier than your peers and competitors and keep improving as you move forward. And that is exactly what Iguodala did, without missing a beat. And that hard work continued right through the 4x champion’s NBA career, which began with the 76ers in 2004, and ended in 2023 at Golden State.
Iguodala recently appeared on The Young Man and The Three podcast and spoke about how he prepared himself for the season’s grind in the summer.
“So, in Philly, it was 1st round exists getting to the playoffs, so you had a long summer. So, I was in the gym a lot … very similar to the players now, where they are in the gym a lot. They are workers,” said Iguodala, adding that he wanted to give credit where credit was due.
Iguodala knows that aspiring young athletes of today are working harder than ever to evolve their unique skillsets, carrying the torch that was passed on to them. “They are in the gym 3-4 times a day,” he said, before comparing the current generation’s work ethic to his.
“That was me. I was always trying to find the athlete… Like Corey Maggette was a guy I looked at. That would be an interesting name for me to say amongst casual NBA fans. He may not be a household name, but he was a cosmetics guy, where how he looked and how he presented to the world was his number one focus,” Iguodala continued.
But Maggette wasn’t the only one who inspired Iguodala. “I have the same agent as Kobe Bryant. So I was always stealing tips, I had someone watching Kobe’s… Stealing things, writing things down, giving it to me,” he confessed.
“Like Kobe would dribble on a wall with his left hand at one angle for 20 minutes and then change the angle for another 20 minutes. So I was doing that,” added Iguodala, who was always smart enough to identify which one of his peers was great at something.
Iguodala would then try to implement that into his routine, gradually incorporating that into his game. This is how he stayed ahead of the curve.
Of course, as he got older, Iguodala realized that it wasn’t about how hard he worked anymore. He had to be smarter so that his body could adjust and allow him a longer career on the court.
“When your season is ending in June and you are playing over 4 years, you go to the finals, you played an extra season. So, now you have got an extra 80 games over 4 years. So I played five NBA seasons in four years. So your body is just different, your mind is different. So you actually need a break,” added Iguodala.
The former forward revealed that he used to take that break to be more efficient. At the end of it, it’s all about how not to waste himself as well as the opportunities. So, he scheduled every minute, every day, whether it was working on himself, his business, or fulfilling any other duties he might have had.
That’s really a solid way to go about one’s career. And considering just how successful he was, it’s something that the new generation of players should try and emulate.
