Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told a funny story for the first time on Zach Lowe’s “Lowe Post” podcast on Monday.
The story involved Andre Iguodala’s free agency last offseason, when it was reported that the veteran forward was mulling lucrative offers from a number of teams throughout the league, along with a less, but still decent offer, to stay in Golden State.
It’s unclear exactly how seriously Iguodala considered leaving the Warriors, but once he had decided to re-sign, he had some fun at the expense of Steve Kerr and Bob Myers, scheduling a conference call with the two to jokingly tell them that he’d be joining with the Sacramento Kings.
“I wasn’t really worried at all about Houston because we knew what they could offer,” Kerr said of Iguodala’s potential destinations. “They only had their mid-level, so we were offering him whatever it was — $15, $16 million bucks a year — he’s not going to take $8 million a year to leave, to leave a championship team. So I was never really that worried. I guess Sacramento was involved and they were offering him a big deal, and typical Andre he decided to play a joke on Bob and me, got us on a conference call and told us he was gonna go to Sacramento. We wished him well and he’s like ‘I got you suckers I’m coming back.’
“Yeah he faked it. He faked it.”
Did Kerr believe Iugodala?
“I bought it for a few seconds but he gave it away quickly, he just started laughing he said,’Nah I’m just kidding,’” Kerr said. “And it would’ve been shocking for him to leave this situation. Really the whole time I thought he was coming back, but he did bust me for about five seconds.”
Iguodala ultimately signed a three-year, $48 million deal with Golden State, and helped them t0 their third title in four seasons during the first year of his new contract.
“That’s probably the first time it’s ever been told, but now that we’ve won a title and we’ve got it all in our rearview mirror, that story can be told. But that’s typical Andre.”
Listen to the full podcast below. To hear Kerr’s story, start from the 44:00 mark.