Andre Iguodala has retired from the NBA at the age of 39.
Iguodala said he turned down interest from the Golden State Warriors and several other teams before deciding to retire.
“It’s just the right time,” Iguodala told Andscape in a phone interview. “Time started to get limited for me, and I didn’t want to put anything in the back seat. I didn’t want to have to try to delegate time anymore. Especially with on the court, off the court with family. A lot.
“You want to play at a high level. But then family is a lot. My son is 16 and then two girls. So [I’m] looking forward to seeing them grow up in those important years.”
Iguodala was the ninth overall pick in the 2004 NBA draft out of Arizona. Iguodala made just one All-Star Game, but he won four championships as one of the parts of the Warriors’ core. In July 2013, Iguodala turned down a five-year contract with the Nuggets to join the Warriors via sign-and-trade on a four-year, $48 million contract.
“We won four championships; that’s kind of unheard of,” Iguodala said. “There are only a handful to teams that can say that. You got the Bulls, the Lakers, Celtics, us, and that’s it. No organization has been run like this. And I think it’s a testament to us believing in each other, playing the right way. The game was played beautifully and had perfect timing for me right there in my prime. And things just happen the way they were supposed to happen when they happened, and it makes you actually strengthen your faith. You just give it all the way up to someone else to say, ‘Let me play to my maximum ability based on the work that I put in and the focus that what I have put into the game has paid off.'”