Warriors beat writer Danny Emerman shares his thoughts on the NBA
Andre Iguodala is the perfect candidate for getting his number retired. The intrinsic value he brought to the Warriors in their golden years deserves to be enshrined in the rafters, the impact he packed into eight seasons with the franchise, the way he embraced the Bay Area.
It all deserves to be recognized. That’s what Sunday’s jersey retirement ceremony at Chase Center is for.
But should Iguodala be in the conversation for Springfield?
Iguodala will be one of 191 players to have their number retired by at least one franchise, an exclusive group of figures who became exceptional to their organizations. About 5,000 people have played at least one NBA game. It’s rare air.
Even rarer: off those 191 players, 129 are in the Hall of Fame.
Iguodala doesn’t have the classic Hall of Fame resume. He averaged 11.3 points per game in his career and ranks 206th on the all-time scoring leaderboard — sandwiched between Carlos Boozer and Ron Harper. Basketball Reference’s Hall of Fame probability model, which accounts for peak win shares, championships and All-Star selections among other variables, gives him a 12.7% chance of induction (Wayne Embry, Don Nelson and Bernard King are some players with lower odds).
The case for Iguodala is more holistic.
“Points never defined his game,” said Steve Kerr, once a Hall of Fame voter. “What defined his game was how good he was at everything…Andre is not your classic Hall of Fame candidate, but when you look at impact on winning, then he becomes a Hall of Fame candidate.”
Iguodala has just one All-Star selection to his name, but that’s not a dealbreaker. Thirteen Hall of Famers were never All-Stars, and four more were likewise honored once.
The Warriors’ first championship of the modern era 10 years ago wouldn’t have been possible without Kerr’s decision to move Iguodala to the bench and the veteran’s willingness to accept it. He triumphantly returned to the starting five in the NBA Finals to check LeBron James.
Iguodala won Finals MVP for swinging that series. The award started in 1969, and Cedric Maxwell is the only person to win it and not get inducted into the Hall of Fame.
That’s history in Iguodala’s favor.
Iguodala is one of 12 players with at least two All-Defensive team honors, four titles and an All-Star nod. That list: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Draymond Green, John Havlicek, Horace Grant and Iguodala.
Pretty good company!
Across 19 seasons, Igoudala accrued 100.36 win shares, ranking 100th in NBA/ABA history. He’s above Grant Hill, Allen Iverson, Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway and James Worth. There are dozens of Hall of Famers with lower win shares, a metric that measures all-around impact ovr a long period of time.
If inducted after he becomes eligible in 2027, Iguodala certainly wouldn’t be the worst Hall of Famer.
Springfield takes international play into account, so that’s another check for Iggy. He helped Team USA to gold in the 2012 Olympics, during which head coach Mike Krzyzewski compared him to Scottie Pippen.
The Basketball Hall of Fame isn’t Cooperstown. The bar is so much lower. For better or worse, it’s the Hall of Very Good.
And given those parameters, Iguodala certainly qualifies.
There aren’t any guidelines for Hall of Fame voting. It’s wholly subjective. Like the famous Supreme Court case on pornography, you know a Hall of Famer when you see one.
Every time Iguodala played point forward, swiped down on steals in the lane, threw down one-handed tomahawks and nailed clutch shots — “I want Iguodala!” — he looked like he belonged in Springfield. Even though he was never the best player on his team, Iguodala was the prototypical all-around player. Any coach, in any era, would love to have him on their team.
The last 10 years of basketball rotated around two axes: LeBron James and the Warriors. To accurately tell the story of the later, you need to include everything Iguodala did across four title runs.
That’s a Hall of Famer. Until then, his jersey No. 9 will hang over the Chase Center court.