Iguodala picks Kyrie over Steph for final game: ‘It’s not even close’
Andre Iguodala — who played with Stephen Curry for eight seasons with the Golden State Warriors — admitted he’ll pick the Dallas Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving over Curry to take one last shot with the game on the line.
“Kyrie Irving, it’s not even close,” Iguodala said. “For the last second shot, I’m going with Kyrie.
You’re going to talk about the fear factor any time or this moment, Kyrie.”The 40-year-old explained his thinking.
“With Steph, I think , that it’s been proven that at least he’s there for teams shown that you can double-team him and if you can just try to get the ball out of his hands, I think that’s the way to fight him,” Iguodala said.
“But with Kyrie, he’s so good. You can’t take the ball out of his hands. Allen Iverson said Kyrie was the best ball handler in NBA history. And I was told I was crazy for that.
But with Kyrie, you talk about the fear factor, you ask everybody in the league, it’s scary to see.”Iguodala knows as well as anyone that Irving has a reputation as a backup player.
Finally, Irving hit a three-pointer in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals against Iguodala and the Warriors to give the Cavaliers a three-point lead with less than a minute to play.
Kyrie Irving pulls up a Clutch Three in Game . 7 of the 2016 NBA FinalsIrving’s bomb from deep helped Cleveland take a four-point victory over the Warriors in a decisive Game 7, fresh off a regular season streak of a record 73 games. Irving averaged 27.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game on 46.8 percent from the floor, 40.5 percent from three-point range and 93.9 percent from the charity stripe.
Iguodala, meanwhile, averaged 9.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists while shooting 46.6 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from the field. Deep in the 2016 NBA Finals.
After the Cavaliers fell in the NBA Finals thanks to Irving’s Game 7, Iguodala’s Warriors got the ball. better than Irving and Cleveland in the 2017 NBA Finals.
The Warriors swept the Cavaliers in five games for the championship, with one loss coming in Game 4 when Cleveland scored a team-high 137 points and Irving’s 40.
Fast forward to today and Iguodala has retired from the NBA after a 19-year career, while Irving is far from his tenure with the Cavaliers. His last season in Cleveland came in the 2016-17 season.
Irving is currently in his second season with the Mavericks organization and is averaging 25.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists. 39 3-pointers so far in the 2023-2024 regular season (all starts)..
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