Andre Iguodala on reuniting with the Warriors & Klay Thompson's return | The Draymond Green Show

I am honored today to be sharing in this podcast, in this episode with one of my favorite teammates of all time. A guy who, you know, you always hear about myself, Steph, and Klay, and us three being together for all of those years. And often when I am asked about that, I often say, "Yeah, us three." Which is true. We've all grown together. We've come into ourselves together, you know, and just started from the bottom and all worked our way to the top together. But the one guy that I always mention in that is the guy who kind of showed us the way, who came on and was the veteran to adding the veteran to us young guys who kind of had a good thing blossoming. And then we add Andre and everything takes off. So I am honored to have to share today with you guys just a conversation between myself, a big brother of mine, the guy who, you know, you've always heard of Draymond's the leader, the guy who I turn to when I don't know where to turn throughout this whole run. Andre, my brother, thank you for coming on, man.

No, I appreciate you having me, man. And I'm just really proud of you, what you built for yourself. And it's very rare that, you know, players actually build something with a real foundation to it off the court. So it's a beautiful thing. Even going back to our conversation, that Bob Myers was having to you last night. Like, you know, I won't say what he said, but you know, that meant a lot to me that he was comfortable having that conversation with you. But it just shows how he feels about you in terms of like your ability to do things, your potential outside the game of basketball, which is tremendous. So it was a beautiful thing to see.

I appreciate that. You know, I am excited to have you on the show for reasons that I don't think most people are going to expect. And we'll get to that. But obviously first we'll kick it off, you know, your first year back with the Warriors after being gone for 2 years, 2 worst years of my career, might I add, you know, but you left, you were traded and then you signed, you didn't go to Grizzlies, but then you got traded to Miami, signed the extension, went to the NBA Finals the first year. Was having a good year last year and obviously it ended short for y'all, but now you're back. What brought you back to the Warriors?

Man, I think it was just, it was a really good experience, you know, seeing something on the other end of the spectrum, you know, and seeing how you can have success on both sides. You know, how our environment is a little bit more lax, you know, a little bit, you know, more, you know, it's got some hippie vibes to it, you know, go as you please at your own pace. And then Miami is kind of like, you know, straight and narrow, you know, everybody in formation. And, you know, I saw, I could see weaknesses, weaknesses in both, 'cause both have, both have had a lot of success. You know, Pat Riley is probably one of the most successful, you know, player, coaches, GMs in NBA history. He's done it at every level. And, you know, we had success here and I saw some flaws here. And just being at those two places, I try to take a step back and see, you know, appreciate the value and the approach on both sides. And when I was there, I saw some things we did with the Warriors that I can, you know, bring to the— some of the players to the team. You know, some guys may not be as mentally strong at their young age and, you know, nudge them and get them to, you know, smile, open up a little bit. But then, you know, coming back, you know, I didn't know my body was gonna feel as good as it did at the end of last year. You know, I thought maybe that might be it. You know, you never know when the end is coming. But I thought, you know, the body reacted better than I thought. And it'd be a beautiful thing to, you know, go back and play with my brothers and seeing what I saw in Miami and how I could kind of bring that added value. And it's kind of like who you are. You know, it's funny, it's like, you know, you're so brash and you're like so competitive and you have that fire and, you know, that's the Heat culture. And I was able to appreciate that even more going there. And I'm like, damn, you know, Draymond's even more valuable than I thought. And I saw that up close every day. So—

Yeah.

You know, now you see me now when you go off on people and I'm just like, "He got a point." Like, I can't really argue with that, you know what I mean? 'Cause I've seen like there's a lot of value in that, especially in our environment where Coach empowers all the guys to just play with, you know, and think freely and think more than themselves. And sometimes that can bite you in the butt. So you gotta have to kind of have to reel it back in, but still give them the confidence to go out there and execute at a high level. So I just thought it was, you know, perfect timing. You know, still got some time left to come back and why not end it you know, with my brothers and, you know, what better way to start it than the way we have so far.

Nah, I think I definitely see, obviously we all know your experience and what you bring to the table from previous years, but I also see growth in your leadership in handling young guys.

Yeah.

Because, you know, for us at first, like when we were first going through our run, we were the young guys, right? Like, and it was totally different than the young guys of today. But you know, I think, you know, there's no secret that, you know, the Warriors are kind of in this space of mixing experience and younger talent and blending the two together and trying to make both ends meet. It is going incredible as we know, sitting here at 18-3 after last night's loss, which we'll talk about. But it's going great. Yeah. I've been watching you a lot just because I'm always trying to learn and always observing and just trying to keep a pulse and understand what's going on. And just the way that you handle these young guys is even different than I saw you handle a Jacob Evans.

Mm-hmm.

You know, even different than I saw you handle a Nemanja Nedović. You know, like, it's the way you are with the guys are different. And I think it can probably be contributed to some of your dealings with Tyler, Hero.

Yes.

And having to handle him, Duncan. You know, so here it is, you got Jimmy, you got Bam, who's a— Bam is like D-Book to me. Like they kind of young OGs.

Yes.

Like young, but—

Yes.

You know, experienced and understands a little more. And so not quite Bam, but like Tyler and Duncan is more so in the Jordan Poole category, you know? And guys of that nature, and you're handling them a little differently than you did before.

It's 100% true. I think I've learned, and I've tried to learn through every experience that I had. You know, like, I made some mistakes in the past, and I think that's the biggest part of it. And then I got people around me that will, you know, like, you know, Rudy's my man, but he'll flat out tell me, like, you know, "You full of shit. Like, you're not being a leader right now. You know, you're supposed to do this and that." And I'll accept it. And then go back and say, what could I have done differently? And I think it's just helped me, you know, even with, you know, our runs from, you know, '14 and '19, '15 and '19, some things I got wrong. And then I would retrace my steps and say, okay, next time that comes up, I know how to handle it. So like Jordan Poole was like one of my favorite guys. And, you know, he's an emotional player and I was an emotional player. So sometimes I gotta place myself in his shoes and it was like, he wants to win. He trying to get his stuff off. And you like, sometimes you tell him something and he may not react the right way, but I have to look at myself at 22. I was reacting kind of the same way.

That's right.

So I took, I was like, okay, put yourself in his shoes. And I think I've tried to do that more so than any other time, just seeing it from my perception. Just trying to see it in his view and say, okay, how would I want Kevin Ali? How would I want Aaron McKee? To help me in those situations. So patience is a big part of it. But I think over time they start understanding that you really rock with them. Like, "No, bro. Like, I really love you. Like, you're really my man, like, for life now." And then once you get past that barrier, then they're open to any type of, you know, constructive criticism.

Yeah, it's incredible. Like I said, I've been watching that and just trying to pick up on it. You know, I think one big thing for me is, and Jonathan Kuminga, who's obviously one of our young guys, the 7th pick, is I'm trying to take it upon myself to do all that I can to make sure he has the success that he should have.

Mm-hmm.

You know, you have a kid who, if I'm not mistaken, come over from the Congo at 13 years old, you know, and his journey is well documented. So I'm not gonna sit here and go through his journey. But now at 19, he's in the NBA. You know, he has, probably making $3.5 million a year and—

No, man, he had like 5. It's a lot.

All right, making a lot of money. And I'm, but I'm trying to take it upon myself to figure out how is it that I have to lead him, right? And I think one of the things for me and that I'm figuring out with that is like Jonathan Kuminga is not really a peer of mine.

Right.

Like he's 12 years younger than me. And I'm 31 years old, he's 19 years old. He's not really my peer.

Right.

And one of the things that I've been trying to do is when dealing with JK, view him more as my child than my brother. You know, like view him more as, or a younger brother than a brother that I'm gonna hang with, that I grew up with, right?

Right.

View him more in that light, as opposed to the light that I would view you in, you know? So the way I may say something to you, I probably can't say that to him because I wouldn't say that to DJ, right?

Right, right.

And so that's something, and it's an adjustment for me because here I am, 31 years old now, The last 2 years we've sucked bad. And as opposed to leading guys to where they need to go in their career, you're just trying to teach them how to win games. Like losing is miserable and you're just trying to— and so there are certain things that gets lost within that. And I'm starting to figure that out with JK and really trying to—

Mm-hmm.

To teach him everything that I can, to see him have the success they should have. And then you have a young guy like Moses, who is one of those old souls, right? Like—

Yep.

Just temperament's different. Like temperament is just like he's been in the league forever.

Yep.

Just kind of moves around a little differently. And so the contrast is there. But speaking of the young guys and our team, you obviously sat out last night. I think you've missed the last 5 or 6 games. Yep.

Yep.

What was your assessment? 'Cause I know what my assessment was in last night's game and how much better we could have been and how much better we will be.

Right.

But what was your assessment and what went wrong in that game?

So I said it to Juan in like second quarter, 'cause the second half I was getting treatment. So I was in the back watching from the team. First half I was up there up close. I was seeing every play we were writing down, seeing coach subs, what we were doing, you know, like, The first thing I noticed was the atmosphere. And now we're getting back to the old ways of everywhere we go, that atmosphere is gonna be just like that, which was incredible.

Yes.

So now you get to see like every team's gonna play their best. And as you know, when we get everybody's best, we will be the best prepared team come playoffs because we have the best experience.

Yes.

So I always—

Absolutely.

I tell people all the time, I'm like, yo, I like playing, like we might lose more games than we should have. Like maybe we have, 20 losses. And they like, "Oh, we should only have 15, we left 5 games." So I'm like, "No, we got the best everybody every night. We are the most prepared going into the playoffs." So I enjoy that. But you also get to see what type of guys step up to the challenge or you get to see their energy when it's a big game. And I saw Otto Porter, boy, he looked like he was ready. Like he got in the game, first shot, bang. Missed the shot.

Yeah.

He was like, "I can't wait till next shot come. I ain't missing." And he just kept hitting timely shots. And kept the game right within, you know, a basket, a possession or two for us the whole night. First half, I thought, you know, it was kind of like a filling out process. I like the Phoenix, I like their energy coming into the game. Like it was like a playoff game to them.

Mm-hmm.

And I don't think, not to say that we didn't match their energy, I felt like we did a good job of rising to that quicker than we normally have. 'Cause you know how we are, we get free flowing and, you know, we mess around and be down 15. We've been down, 12 or more, like 6 times this year, 7 times this year, and came back and won 'em all. And we didn't let that happen because it was like, oh, they, this is like a playoff game.

Yeah.

Second, third possession, like let's rise to the occasion. So everybody kind of stepped it up. Think second half is we kind of let go of the, we kind of let it go a little bit. We start letting 'em get comfortable. We start letting a few guys get to their dominant hand. As I was talking about in the text chain this morning, you, we let him get to his dominant hand and he start controlling the game. The way he does everywhere he's gone. And he's got, you know, the ultimate competitor and he knows how to win. And then, you know, offensive rebounds killed us in the first half. Obviously our Achilles heel is turnovers. You know, we had some, we had like live ball turnovers. Like I always say, when the young guys going into the games, look man, we up 15, 20, we can't lose. If you just let the shot clock go to zero every possession, we still win by 10.

Yes.

So don't take quick dumb shots and don't turn it over. And last night, you know, we never really got to a great look. You know what I'm saying? We did have a few, like you had a few layups that you've been making all year and you pushed the pace and you've been finishing them amazing. And I'm watching you practice. I'm like, damn, that shit's gonna be big time. It just didn't happen for us last night. Steph just, you know, Steph just didn't have his normal legs. 'Cause even he said, I saw one shot. I'm like, that's good. And it was the air ball. Then he shot another shot. He was like, that's good. He was like, damn, that was an air ball. I thought I was making it.

Yeah.

You have those nights in the NBA. I think we could have did it more of split cuts. That was the key. We could have made them move a little bit different than what we've been showing them. 'Cause as you know, when we had KD, we had a cheat code. We needed to just get out his way, you know? And that the next level for us is we get a little stagnant. We take some quick shots. We rely on jump shots. We can get to our split cuts. You know what I'm saying? Especially when big fella gets back, which is, we talking about the young fellas. I can't wait to simplify his game.

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely. I think that major stepping stone for Wiseman is simplifying the game of basketball. And once you simplify it, that's when everything else opens up. Instead of trying to do everything at one time, it's like a startup. You gotta focus on one little thing and then grow out from there. So I told Juan in the second quarter, I'm like, "Bro, we have so far to go and we're still like, we're still one of the best teams, top 2, 3 teams in the league. Like it's scary, but it's not given. Like we gotta go." go get it.

So I'm excited. Yeah, I agree 100%. I think, you know, like you said in that game, I'm not sure who was worse, Steph or myself. We were both pretty bad. Wiggins probably being a little better than us two were. And yet with 2 minutes and 40 seconds left, I got a left-hand layup to cut the lead to 1.

Yep.

You know, so I like where we are also. Like you said, I love, the way that guys rose to the occasion because I'm not gonna play that bad. Steph's not gonna play that bad. Wiggs is not gonna play that bad. When Jordan Poole came out hitting shots, like he was hitting shots. I kept saying literally every shot he hit, show up young fella.

Yep, yep, yep.

He like, yeah.

Yep.

Show up young fella.

Yep.

Yeah.

And he just let the game come to him. Like he didn't take any crazy, he might've had one shot where we like, there go that Jordan Poole shot. But he was like on point. He got to the foul line. Been on him about this whole year is like, yo, when you making shots, you should get to the line. You should have 6 free throw attempts.

Yes.

Cuz you making shots, they own you. And he was just very patient. One time was 3 seconds on the clock. He pump fake, let a guy pass him, took a breath, shot it right before the buzzer. And I'm like, normally he would've rushed it. I'm like, yo, I'm just seeing growth and more growth.

Yes.

And Chiozza came in and hit a big 3.

Yep.

We, we got like, that's one issue we have. That's not an issue. It's just our depth. And then that's something that Phoenix has as well. So, It'd be interesting to see how, you know, we match up come April.

Yeah, nah, that's great. And as I said before, you coming on this show, there was part of me that wants to hear even, or wants to hear more of this than basketball. And that is Andre, he, basketball is like his half-day job, but he's a venture capitalist. And probably spends more time on that today than basketball. Just for the simple fact, when you look at managing your body, right? Like, you're not on the court all day, every day, like you were when you were 24 years old.

Yeah.

You're more precise in what you do. Okay, I'm getting on the court, I'm going hard for 1 hour, that's it. You know, I'm making my lift, I'm doing my body work. But when you're a venture capitalist, and the way that you are moving in that space, like that's a 24-hour thing. You know, like you're sending emails if you're awake at 1:00 AM, like, and that doesn't stop. But I have had the opportunity to learn a ton from you and watch all the moves that you're making in that space. And I think it's incredible. But one of the things that I really wanted you to come on and educate me on, and not only myself, but our audience as well, is you've gotten really deep into the NFT space. Tell us more about that. Explain NFTs for our audience that don't know what an NFT is. And then also just tell me more about you in that space and what it is that you see going forward and why you're so interested into the space and how long have you been at it?

So, I mean, to try to break it down, you know, as quickly as possible, 'cause it's a rabbit hole and I'm in Discord. I was on Discord today for like 45 minutes. People like, "Yo, you really in here?" I'm like, "Yeah, I'm studying." So NFT is, you know, non-fungible token. So essentially think of as a digital collectible, you know, like we collect so many things, you know? I tell people all the time, like Warren Buffett is one of the wealthiest people on earth because he started collecting stamps and coins at like age 4 or 5. Like he had a passion for collecting coins, which is currency.

Mm-hmm.

So just like we enjoy, immersing ourselves in the game of basketball and studying basketball, he studied money. And then he had an uncle who traded on the stockroom floor. And then his pops was in politics and, you know, with policy and how money moves, taxes, all those things. Like that was his world. So it was no surprise that he just accumulated a lot of wealth. So we accumulate different things in different worlds. You know, how did eBay start? eBay started with collecting Beanie Babies. You know what I mean?

Mm-hmm, yeah.

Amazon started with people who were just lovers of books.

Yep.

They were able to scale those platforms out into, you know, some of the e-commerce we talk about today is, you know, everybody's going into the e-commerce space and from different ways. So NFTs is similar in terms of, you know, you collecting things digitally. So it started out with NBA Top Shot. I got a call from, I forgot who it was, you know, it was an interesting company. This is a great founder who has a great track record of starting up companies in this manner. And obviously like JaVale McGee, got to give him a lot of credit. You know, people know him as JaVale McGee, but as you know, like this dude is one of the high IQ guys on the planet, not just in NBA, but this dude is smart. So he was talking about—

Super smart.

Bitcoin was like 9, 8, 9,000. And he was like, yo, it's going to get to 15, get some Bitcoin. And I'm like, I ain't really ready yet. You know, the thing's just got to 60, 65, you know, this, past summer, we all know what's happening. But, you know, when you talk about cryptocurrencies and a blockchain and how that whole space works with the ledger, which is your receipts, everything works more efficiently, everything's more accountable, you know. They figured out that they would start in the financial sector in terms of introducing the blockchain because they knew if they can get the finance side right, everything else will follow behind it. It's just like eBay started with Beanie Babies and everything came behind it. So that's just this entry to market. And NBA Top Shot obviously was big for the, not just NBA, but for the NFT space. Cuz people were very excited to start, you know, collecting moments. This is like a trading card. So people was like, well, I can just go screenshot an image on my phone. What's the difference? And I'm like, yeah, you can print a picture off your printer. That don't mean you own the actual trading card, you know?

Absolutely.

And then it shows who owns it on the ledger. So there's actually a receipt seat, say, I own this. So there's many different things you can do with owning a digital asset. You know, one thing that artists, they make more money in the NFT space than painting a picture. You know, Picasso paints a picture, sells it one time, and you know, most artists don't make money while they're alive.

Mm-hmm.

They sell that picture one time and that's the only time they make money off of it. Well, actually NFTs, there's a 6% fee every time it's being moved or sold. So the artist gets paid even though they don't own that picture throughout its course of its life. And then, you know, obviously you got trust, which goes into DAOs, which is a whole nother rabbit hole on the block, on the ledger in the blockchain space. That's key too. You know, you got a few like Spencer Dinwiddie is just amazing when he speaks on it. He's heavily into the, he wanted to get paid in, he wanted his whole NBA contract.

Yeah.

In crypto, which you technically can't do, but there's a way to do it. You know, I'm working on something right now where I could be compensated through Bitcoin. So you see how far I digress because it's so immersive, but the NFT space right now is a lot of digital images. It's a lot of, it's almost like a secret society. You look at Bored Ape Yacht Club, it's like, why would I buy a picture of a gorilla for $500,000? And it's almost like its own secret society where you get access to a certain club in Miami, LA, New York. Like you gotta have this, your phone is your wallet and it shows you own it. And it shows up on Ledger. Like I get access to this party or I get access to all the merch first. You know, it's like a pair of Jordans, you know, they make 10,000 pairs of Jordans and you know, it's 350 million people in America and then 50 million sneakerheads. It's only 10,000 shoes. So people buy 'em up. And then they resell 'em because it's just a hot commodity to have. It's the same thing. It's just a pair of shoes. You know what I mean? It's gonna wear out, but what you gonna do? Just leave 'em there? You can't wear 'em, they lose the value. Same thing with the, you know, people like collecting digital photos that other people don't have. It kind of shows your socioeconomic status within the economy or within our worlds we live in. And that's what it's eventually gonna go to Where you start talking about the metaverse, which is talking about Web 3.0, where we're all going to exist in this virtual world and we're going to express ourselves through our avatar. So your avatar is going to be like, you know, the person that people see, you know, we're going to slowly but surely start away from each other and then just coming back in small groups. But we're all going to— like Microsoft is big on the workspace metaverse where you can work from home, but you put the headset on, but you see your coworkers working in real time and Your surroundings look a little different. It's not home because there's that layer that thinks you're at work. And then Facebook, which is called Meta now, they just put up, they spent like $10 billion this year already in the space, which tells you everything you need to know. When these large companies start pumping out billions of dollars into a space, it's like the innovator's dilemma, but it's not because they know what's coming and they disrupted so many different things. They know something's gonna come after them. So they gotta be ready before it hits them. Mm-hmm. Square just changed his name, Jack Dorsey, he was CEO of Twitter and Square, he just changed the name of Square, which is one of the largest fintech companies in the world, to Block, which is blockchain.

Blockchain.

So it's just moving so crazy and we are just trying to stay ahead of it. And it's exciting, this is the last thing I'll say, started with Web 2.0, which was platforms creating and publishing and monetizing and owning everything. And then Web 2.0, which is where we're in right now, you see creators creating everything, you know, but we create content and where does it go? It goes to Facebook, it goes to Instagram, it goes to TikTok, and we don't participate in that value add. The same way, you know, Warriors are worth $450 million when Steph's there, and then when you get there, when Klay's there, now they're worth $5 billion. But if there's a sale, do we participate in the accumulation of value in that sale? Zero, right? So there's no ownership. So Web 3.0 is about creators creating and creators Having, you know, they actually own, you know, everything that exists that they're creating, which is what we've never seen before. So we're in exciting times, and it's just for us to try to continue to spread the knowledge, because obviously African Americans, we always the last one to get access to anything. And then we're always, you know, the system set up for us to, you know, be at the bottom of the totem pole, because, you know, you have to have cheap labor, and we've always been the ones to have cheap labor. So Part of me being excited is to take all this information, put it together, package it the right way, and give it back to our community so we can own it and we can learn it and we can start having leadership. You know, we can be the, you know, the coach, the GM, the owner. And then when you're in those positions of power, I guess you can call it, but you start hiring and identifying who's good that you know, because you hire who you know and you hire what you're comfortable with. And that's why we've never been in a position to being those job titles that can bring more people that look like, you know, the manager.

So I, so I know nothing. I don't own any NFTs or where do I start?

Okay, it's like the easiest way you need to do, it's really 3 things, you know, get a Coinbase account. What's the word I'm looking for? I have to, let everyone know that I am an investor in Coinbase, right? So, but you get a Coinbase account. There's other places, I think FTX, which just did a deal with Steph, but you know, Coinbase account, then you get a MetaMask account. So Coinbase is where you buy your crypto, which, you know, all NFTs, not all, majority run off Ethereum, right? And then there's Solana-based, there's Tezos-based, but for the most part it's Ethereum. So you go to Coinbase and then you link your bank account. And then you put however much money you want to get Ethereum. Then you get a MetaMask, which is a wallet. So it's like a digital wallet that basically you can buy NFTs. So you need the MetaMask or there's other digital wallets as well, but I use MetaMask, not an investor MetaMask. But once you have MetaMask, you go on OpenSea. Coinbase has an NFT platform and it's a test pilot right now. But for the most part, OpenSea is where people go, where all the NFTs are listed.

Okay.

And you use MetaMask to buy from OpenSea. And you also need Discord as well. Discord is when you see a project that you like, you go to Discord, you go to that project chat room, and you talk to the community, and you can kind of get a good feel for projects gonna do well or not because you have authentic people having conversations about, all right, what makes this NFT Is it a money grab? They just trying to sell something real quick and get out? It's a bunch of those. Or is there a roadmap? Is there a utility here saying, when I have this digital asset, what comes with it? Do I get access to this? Do I get access to that? Am I able to meet this person? Am I able to meet that person? And then you see a lot of celebrities that are in and out. So you just got to be careful. So you still got to do your homework. It's just like investing in, you know, a company that may not be as well known and you just gotta track it and see what they're doing every quarter. So you just, those 4 things help you, Coinbase, MetaMask, OpenSea, and Discord.

It's interesting. I appreciate you sharing that knowledge because it's, like you said, I think it's very important. You know, when you speak on Draymond Green and Bitcoin, I appreciate you saying that about JaVale, 'cause he is probably one of the most misunderstood people in the NBA.

Sure.

Because of the JaVale McGee, you know, and all of those things, people think JaVale McGee is dumb.

Right.

And like you said, he is probably one of the, if top 5 smartest guys in the NBA, and top 5 may be selling him short. You know, it just, You know, I mean, JaVale McGee is like one of those people that he's so smart, sometimes it can fly by you or it's hard to understand him because he's so smart. And so I have an appreciation for that. But speaking of Bitcoin, I remember Chamath told me years ago, man, Bitcoin probably had to be worth $300, $400 a Bitcoin. He said, take 1% of your net worth. This had to be '08. '08. 7, 8 years ago, take 1% of your net worth and put it into Bitcoin.

Yep.

I'm like, Bitcoin, what is that? Right? And he starts breaking down to me what Bitcoin is. And at the time I didn't really have any money.

Right.

So I couldn't even process what putting 1% of the little money that I did have into anything, right? Like, I'm like, no, I don't have any money to put into that. I should have put it in there, but I didn't. But nonetheless, you know, it is what it is and you live and you learn. And that's kind of where I am in this space is just continuing to learn, you know, trying to get more active in the space, but also I want to thoroughly understand it before I just get super active into it, you know? And so that's what I've been trying to do. I will say—

But—

No, go ahead.

The funny thing is the best thing that happened to me is my account got hacked. I got robbed. Like, it's funny that it happened like that. But so if you click, like, warning for everybody, don't click on anything in Discord. Like, don't click anything, like, in terms of, like, links, right? So I'm just trying to learn. You know how we are. Like, we know how to work hard. We watch hours and hours of film. So it's nothing to us to study. Like, it's easy for us to pick up on stuff. That's why people say, like, you know, like, athletes, we can transition to different places 'cause Like we just learn how to work hard and obtain information. So I'm just learning, clicking on stuff, and I clicked on the wrong thing. Somebody got access to my account and then I accidentally screenshot my passwords to my wallet. And then they go into my cloud, got that too.

Boom.

Take my stuff, right? But that right there, I ended up losing like $25,000. But I talked to somebody in the community, community showed up for me and showed me how to get everything back. I would get everything back to square, whatever. I still lost, but—

Yeah.

He was like, think about it as you just went to school and you just got your degree in NFTs. And I was like, wow. 'Cause now I'm able to teach other people, do this, do that, move like this, move like that. All right, watch out for this, watch out for that. Even with like some of the projects that aren't that good, I got some projects that's like, ah, I wouldn't have did that if I could have do it again. But now I just give it that same information to other people. So I say the best thing to do is just buy one thing and just like watch it. That experience alone will, teach you so much than one person can tell you.

Yeah. Nah, I appreciate it, man. And I think for me, when you first came out here and you came to the Golden State Warriors, I remember everything that you was talking about. Like, I love the tech space, I wanna do this in the space. And to see where you've actually grown in that space is incredible. You're well respected in that space, you're well known in that space. And you've had some investments that's performed, several unicorns that's performed really well. As you, now you're, you know, in the last couple years of your career, from just even listening to you say, "Oh, maybe last year was it." You know, in the last couple years of your career winding down, obviously venture is probably what's next for you. But what does that look like for you moving forward?

Yeah, it's really exciting. I think without giving too much that hasn't been announced yet, everything's sort of coming to fruition. And I had a really good conversation with one of my favorite private equity guys. He's not really a venture capitalist, but a private equity guy. And I don't want to put his name out there. He enjoys being anonymous. We want to be like them, and most of them want to be like us, but he's the one who just enjoys no one knows his name. And he was like, listen. You gotta take, and I think all basketball players should do this. Like we had so much success and like, we were just like, all right, where's the next mountain to climb? And we forget to give ourselves flowers. You know, that's the cultural thing to say, like give the flowers while they're still here. And it's like, we forget to bask in our own success. Like we let so many voices outside the game not let us enjoy the success we had. Let's keep it 100. Like, you remember, like, we remember vividly where we came from. Like, that room I lived in when I was in like second grade, like, I can't even walk in there right now. I'm like, I gotta— It's crazy like how you grow up like that, right? Like, you accomplished a whole lot as African American men. Like, the odds are already stacked up against us. Like, we beat the life expectancy already. Like, no one even says that. So he said that like, yo, where you came from 6 years ago in the tech space to where you are now, like, No one would've predicted that. Like, you came a long way already and you're so focused on the goal and you think you got so far to go. It's like, nah, you came a long way. You gotta start enjoying that and embracing it. So I've tried to do that. But at the same time, like, we're just wired to keep competing and we're wired to just like, what's next? What's next?

Like—

Absolutely. I'm trying to get somewhere where, you know, nobody thought we can go where they at. You know, they, like, we can get to the NBA, but how many of us are owners or how many of us I've accumulated this much amount of wealth, 'cause it's not about how much money I got in the bank, but it is because this much amount of money in the bank is real change to my community. 'Cause it's like 50,000 here, 100,000 there, we call them Band-Aids over bullet wounds. Like they really don't fix the problems. But when you start talking about endowments and you putting the right infrastructure in place to where you never have to touch the money and you can run organizations and foundations just off the interest alone, of the endowment you put in place, now that's real change. Now you got a school, you know, Jalen Rose has done it, a beautiful, beautiful academy. LeBron James has done it, you know, and it's, and it's, we don't even talk about those things enough. Those are generational changes and providing that right infrastructure. So the next group of folks behind us are in a much better position, situation that we are in. And then in turn they do the same thing. And that's how you build that group economics as David West was always talking about. Yeah. You know, and in the VC space, I got a few things that will be coming out in the next couple months on the VC side, even on the private equity side, even on the, you know, the athlete side that I'm really excited about and just, you know, dot my I's and cross my T's and just, you know, button everything up.

No, it's beautiful to see. And like I said, as someone who watches you right here, I just want to say thank you for the knowledge that you've shared with me, for the path that you've laid out for all of us. I speak for myself, but I can also speak for guys in that locker room because I know how we all look at you, Steph Curry. I know how his business is ran so incredibly now. And a part of that was watching you, you know, and the things that you were doing. So definitely appreciate that. And obviously we're on an off day, so I don't wanna take up much more of your time. I appreciate you coming on. I do have 2 more basketball questions before I let you outta here.

Yes.

And the first one is, I know for me, I am looking at this team and as I said, we kind of got that mix of younger and experienced and it feel right. Like the team feel good. It just, it feel right. Like the aura is right. The vibe is great. The coaching staff has been incredible. I mean the training staff, like it just feel right. Like, do you feel or see anything? 'Cause I know I like, this feel real 2015, '16-ish for me. Like that's how it feel for me.

The funny thing is, is like coming in, like I knew like that Miami Heat culture had me like locked in. So I'm already ready to go. Like, all right, I gotta bring that Miami Heat kind of vibe. Like make sure y'all, we really locked in every day. But to say that I could predict this would be a lie. Like, I didn't, you don't know. Like most of the time you can, you know, like all the, like when we had success the first year, we didn't quite know until we did.

Yes.

But after that we like, well, we about to, we about to run through, through these dudes the next 4 years. As long as we together, we running through people.

Mm-hmm.

This year coming back, you was like, you still trying to figure it out. But then you start feeling the energy. Like you said, the coaching staff, you start seeing the young guys. And then you see that video of Klay the other day.

Yes.

Draymond Green played. But you see the clip, I'm like, "Oh, oh." Mm-hmm. Now you locked in even more like, "Yo, let's not waste no time. Let's not throw nothing away. Like, let's take advantage of all these moments. Like, we all know this ain't guaranteed." And everyone, for whatever they said, we had a really good team. Just 'cause you got a good team don't mean you gonna win it. Like, you still gotta win it.

Yeah.

And I understand how precious these moments are and what we got ahead of us. I'm like super like, you just wake up and you can't wait to get to work. And people don't understand like being a professional athlete, there's so many things that come with it that can like stray you away from the joy of your job. And it's just like becoming a drag sometimes. But when you're excited to go to work, like it's an incredible feeling, man. Like, and it's just every day is just like, even when you working hard, it's not work hard, hard work. It's just like, yo, we getting better.

Yeah. No, it's great. It's funny. I said that to Loon yesterday, like Loon, I just enjoy coming to work again, man. Like, it just feel good to come here. And speaking of Klay, when I saw that video, when they showed us that, like, what the hell? Like, and what people don't know is the video that they saw, he hit his first 6 shots of the scrimmage.

Yeah.

And as we know, Q, who was up here with us for like a week or so in training camp, like, you guard him, you getting all them buckets. They come in bunches. Like, we all saw the clips and we saw it broke up. But if he hit 6 straight, that was 6 of the first 10 possessions. 'Cause you know Klay, he hit that first one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Klay not gonna let you just lose him and he hitting shots.

Yep.

He going to get the ball. So you know those 6 buckets absolutely came within the first 6 of the first 10 possessions of that scrimmage. And that had me so excited, man. Seeing him playing like that. Obviously we're playing well, but just on his journey, man, it's beautiful to see. So I am extremely excited about Klay coming back. I know we all are. And yes, we are playing great, but you add Klay Thompson back to the fold and then Wiseman back to the fold. Like, I like where we at. But lastly, what I wanna ask you, and I think this one, this question is really near and dear to me because As someone who's had the opportunity to play with, share the court with you for 7 years now, this is year 7, I think, 6 or 7. I know, and then also sharing the court with Bam Adebayo this summer, the one thing he said and the one thing we both obviously agree on is like playing with Andre, it just makes the game easier, right? Like it makes the game easier for you in understanding your impact and what you bring to the game. And now you start to talk about the All-Star appearances, the championships, Finals MVP, defensive teams, all these things. It bothers me when people don't say you're a lock for a Hall of Famer. Like that bothers me. And I don't understand. I understand it because what I understand is that people don't understand the game of basketball.

Right.

And so I understand it from that perspective of like, Y'all don't really understand the game of basketball. So you technically don't know what you're watching. But it bothers me when people don't say Andre Iguodala's a lock for the Hall of Fame because, you know, we see a lot of guys who can jump out the gym. You being one of those guys, obviously not as jumping as high as you are. Who's jumping that high at your age and all the miles that you have on your body? But you still get up higher than most guys. And for most guys, that's a hindrance. Like you see guys that can jump and they dumber than a bag of rocks. Like they don't really understand the game of basketball 'cause they've just ran somewhere and jumped all their life. And whereas you happen to be one of the smartest guys in the league jumping like that is so rare. Does it bother you? Like it bothered me when people not saying you a lot for the Hall of Fame.

I don't think so. 'Cause like, Like, I think I said it a couple times. It's like, I really couldn't see how good, like, I couldn't see how good Steph was when I was playing with him. Like, I know how good you were because we kind of in the same lane as like, we know how good we are at what we do. And we know it's very high level. Well, what Steph does is like, it's loud and you see it.

Yes.

But he's so focused on trying to, get to like, what's next? Like we're like proactive players where we gonna get there before you do.

Yeah.

So it's like one thing with Wiggs, I'm like, Wiggs, like he's been really good defensively this year. And he, this is when I knew I, this is when I knew I was kind of good. Like I never like saying I'm good. Like I'm nice. But this one I knew like I was doing things the right way. When Wiggs was like, yo, what are some things you like to do when you guard LeBron? I was like, whoa. I'm like, bro, you've got way more ability than me. But then I had to like, ah, okay, okay, this is a good thing. And then I give him some pointers. I'm like, yo, it's really not about stopping him 'cause you can't. It's just about beating him to the spot before he gets there. And that starts when Steph shoots. So as soon as Steph shot the ball, I would be looking for LeBron like, all right, where is he at? And what point of attack will he be taking the ball out of bounds? That's the first thing that went off on my mind. Yeah. So for me, it was just like, I wasn't really able to see things like, you know, how good Steph was, you know? So I couldn't like really appreciate. So that goes back to like, you know, I'm upset at how people see the game. Like, as you know, we like, we identify the journalists who know the game and who don't. And not even journalists, just people in general. And we realize most don't know the game that well because, you know.

Absolutely.

So then it doesn't bother me. And then I always say, like I talked about the top 75 list, I always say like, there's guys in the Hall of Fame that I feel like, I think I'm better than him. And I'm not trying to be cocky. Like I think I'm better than that guy. He's in the Hall of Fame. But there are guys who are not in the Hall of Fame that are better than me.

Yeah, facts.

And that says a lot. And I'm just like, hey man, it just is what it is. You just, if it comes, it comes. If it doesn't, it doesn't. And like I said before, like the impact, our generation of basketball players are gonna have, or it just gets bigger and bigger through each generation, which shows that there is, you know, there's maturity. It shows evolution. We're becoming better as humans. Like, the things we're doing off the court are gonna have a much bigger impact for not just basketball players, but just, you know, Black kids in general. And I think that's what we should be most proud about. And like, that really goes back to, like, you having a conversation with Bob yesterday. I'm like, bro, like— Mm-hmm. The impact that we have outside the game is just crazy.

Absolutely. Nah, man, I definitely appreciate it. The vet, Andre Iguodala, Hall of Famer in my book, champ. I appreciate everything you've done for me, including obviously coming on this podcast today, but goes way beyond this podcast, just in my career, in my life, the things you've taught me. You'll always be somebody I'll look to, I'll call upon, When I need some advice, when I need somebody to talk to, I appreciate you, brother. Thank you for coming on.

No, thank you, man. Appreciate you. Proud of you too, man. We gotta say that more often, man.

Appreciate you. Thank you, bro. Likewise, likewise. Our venture capitalist brother who causing havoc over there and figuring it out, man. Definitely appreciate it.

Yes, sir.