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Once an NBA player is in his mid 30’s, there is nothing surprising about retirement talk. The only exceptions to that would perhaps be if a player was still at his best yet talking about hanging the sneakers up earlier than expected, or if he was clearly all washed up yet insisting on playing many more years. The extremes. Anything in the middle, there’s no shock. Still, it’s always interesting to keep up with how players feel about their career wrapping up. Here’s NBC Sports Bay Area on Warriors veteran Andre Iguodala, who will turn 35 years old this coming January:
Andre Iguodala is counting down the remaining years of his NBA career. No need to count the days or weeks, because others have been doing that since, oh, about 2015.
“I’m going to be done soon,” he told NBC Sports Bay Area this week. “I could probably play a legit five more years, but I’ll probably max out at three more after this year – maybe three more.
“But if I’m not here, that will weigh heavily on what I will do. I possibly have another year here – if we win. That’s it. I know that. I’m fine with it.”
Possibly? Reminded that he is under contract for the 2019-20 season, at 17.2 million, the final year of the three-year, $48 million deal he signed in July 2017, Iguodala waves it off.
Since joining the Warriors in the 2013-14 season, Iguodala has yet to average double-digit points. But his defense and various intangibles as a veteran leader has definitely been helpful. This season he’s putting up just 4.5 points per game, but also a decent 3.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 22.8 minutes per game of playing time.
