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Former NBA Finals MVP confirms decision to retire
Andre Iguodala. Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Longtime NBA guard/forward Andre Iguodala has confirmed that he intends to retire as a player, telling Michael de la Merced of DealBook in The New York Times that he’ll focus going forward on his work as a start-up investor.

When Iguodala announced last September that he was re-signing with the Warriors, he indicated it would be his last season. However, following the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign, he didn’t officially confirm that he still planned to hang up his sneakers and remained noncommittal this offseason about his next steps.

Speaking to DealBook, Iguodala said it has been “a blessing” to play in the NBA as long as he has (19 years) and admitted that he’s not sure if the decision to retire has “actually hit me yet.” According to de la Merced, the 39-year-old is directing his attention now to Mosaic, the $200MM venture capital fund that he’ll run with business partner Rudy Cline-Thomas.

Iguodala is also interested in owning an NBA franchise someday and currently has stakes in a pair of soccer teams – Leeds United (EFL) and  Bay Area FC (NWSL) – as well as the San Francisco branch of the TGL, a golf league created by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

The ninth overall pick in the 2004 draft, Iguodala spent his first eight seasons with the Sixers, earning an All-Star nod during his final year in Philadelphia and recording the highest scoring averages of his career during that time (including 19.9 points per contest in 2007/08).

After being traded from the 76ers to the Nuggets and playing for one year in Denver, Iguodala headed to Golden State, where he spent eight of his final 10 years in the league, with two separate Warriors stints sandwiching a two-season run in Miami (2019-21). He won championships with the Warriors in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022 and earned NBA Finals MVP honors in ’15.

For his career, Iguodala averaged 11.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.4 steals in 32.1 minutes per game across 1,231 regular season appearances and played in another 177 postseason games. The former Arizona Wildcat also made the All-Defensive first team in 2014 and the second team in 2011.

This article first appeared on Hoops Rumors and was syndicated with permission.

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