For nearly two decades, Andre Iguodala established a reputation as one of the N.B.A.’s most versatile players, an All-Star and Olympic gold medalist who racked up four championships with the Golden State Warriors.
Now, Iguodala has told DealBook exclusively that he is retiring from pro basketball to focus on his other career: start-up investor. He will run Mosaic, a $200 million venture capital fund that he just raised with his longtime business partner, Rudy Cline-Thomas.
Iguodala’s disclosure ends years of speculation. The 39-year-old had suggested that last year’s season would be his last, only to shoot down rumors about it earlier this year. But now is the time to hang up his sneakers. “It’s been a blessing to play for that long,” he told DealBook. (He hasn’t fully come to grips with it yet: “I don’t know if it’s actually hit me yet,” he said.)
He’s embracing his next act. Though he and Cline-Thomas had begun buying tech stocks in 2010, the two dived deeply into start-ups when he joined the Warriors in 2013. “When I initially went out to the Bay Area, it was my intent to have success on and off the court,” Iguodala said. “I thought about how to get access.”
That led to meetings with venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz, and then to taking stakes in start-ups, including Zoom and the cybersecurity provider Cloudflare.
It is a model now followed by many pro athletes, from the N.F.L.’s Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers to Iguodala’s longtime Warriors teammate Steph Curry. “Athletes are becoming smarter and smarter,” Iguodala said, asserting that their competitiveness and an ability to speak to audiences help to sell and scale products.
Mosaic is now his focus. The firm will home in on seed- and early-stage investments in enterprise software, fintech health care and sports companies. Iguodala and Cline-Thomas closed Mosaic’s first fund — whose investors included endowments, institutions and founders of companies they have already backed — in May.
Mosaic’s investments include Vessel, a builder of modular multifamily homes, and Athletes First, an N.F.L. talent agency and management firm.
Sports franchise ownership is another focus. Iguodala is a co-owner of Leeds United, an English soccer club; Bay Area F.C., the National Women’s Soccer League team; and, along with former teammates Curry and Klay Thompson, the San Francisco branch of TGL, the upstart golf league co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Iguodala’s highest aspiration? Owning an N.B.A. team. “The timing has to be right,” he said, but “that’s definitely the ultimate goal.”
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Does he retire a warrior or 76er?
Gotta be 76ers right
finally, it took him long enough
Finally
Happy retirement to Iguodala…to Curry, back to Iguodala, up for the layup….oh, BLOCKED BY JAMES!
Lebron James with the rejection!
never understood how his offense regressed so much since his Philly days
By a couple measures (eFG%, TS%, offensive rating) he actually improved a ton with the Warriors, it’s just his usage went way down.
His post-career will be incredibly successful, thanks for the memories.
Bout time
IggyDollas
He should have probably retired last season tbh, not sure he really made the Warriors any better last season and going out after winning in 2022 would have been a better narrative.
the og snake
Fun fact: He was in the same restaurant as me when I proposed to my wife. I like to think of him as a brother now, even if he was all the way on the other side of the room and didn’t even notice.
I don’t follow the NBA, but I was attending the U of Arizona when he played. Absolutely incredible that he’s been playing all this time!
Made me want to look up all the other players from those days.
Completely forgot Luke Walton got into coaching after his Lakers days! I remember being surprised he was drafted while someone else wasn’t… can’t remember who though.
Gilbert Arenas seems to have had a long career.
Loren Woods didn’t seem to have much of an NBA career. Flamed out with the timberwolves.
Richard Jefferson sure did.
Jason Gardner never played in the NBA, looks like he’s back at the U of A recruiting.
I remember being surprised that Michael Wright was drafted. And holy shit he got murdered. crazy.
Then there was that one guy who committed to the wildcats, but then reneged and entered the draft, only to flame out for the Timberwolves (as seemed to be tradition). Right, Ndubi Ebi!
Cool
Are we just posting articles now?
Iguodala is going to test the boundaries for who qualifies as a Basketball Hall of Fame player.
Iggy is so very very very far from any serious HoF argument. 1x All-Star and won a few rings as a role player.
Ben Wallace did this. Dennis Rodman before him. Tim Hardaway until recently. Chauncey Billups is already doing this. Derrick Rose will do it after Iguodala.
The threshold for the HOF is constantly being nudged one way or another.
To me, Billups is a hands down hall of famer
While none of the names you mentioned are HOF shoe-ins, they are all much more accomplished in terms of individual accolades than Iggy:
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Wallace: 4x DPOY, 6x All NBA, 6x All Defense, 2x Rebounds Leader, 1x Blocks Leader
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Rodman: 8x All Defense, 2x All NBA, 2x All Star, 2x DPOY, 7x Rebounding Champion
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Hardaway: 5x All Star, 5x All NBA
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Billups: 5x All Star, 3x All NBA, 2x All Defense, FMVP
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Rose: MVP, 3x All Star, 1x All NBA, Rookie of the Year
.
.
.
- Iguodala: FMVP, 1x All Star, 2x All Defense
You are also forgetting he saved Earth from the Martians
shoe-ins -> shoo in
Open the barn door and shoo the chickens in
https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/pardon-the-expression/shoo-in-vs-shoe-in/
That FMVP is probably gonna be weighted a lot more than it realistically should.
By people who dismiss Rose’s regular season MVP as an outlier
yea crazy you get in the HOF for playing 7 games well, and frankly, not even that great
he held Lebron to 40 point triple doubles
On low efficiency, which is the point.
But he didn’t deserve it, Steph was the most valuable player on the winning team.
dude had 11 assists on a team that shot 39% from the floor.
The award was never for the best player on the winning team, it was always about contextual performance within the finals. Steph played mediocre by his standards whereas LeBron was far and away the best player there. But Iggy flipped the script and was the deciding factor, which is why he deserved it
Such a funny and clever joke that totally hasn’t been used many times before on r/nba.
When he could have went for 80
Darrell Imhoff held Wilt to “only” 60-ish points the game after his 100pt game and got a standing ovation lmao
A FMVP that he really shouldn’t have too
If that’s the case, then Cedric Maxwell should have been in the Hall of Fame a long time ago.
Andre Iguodala doesn’t get enough credit for the 2013 Nuggets season.
People try to erase that season due to the “Iggy was a double agent” rumor
What about Klay and Drey?
I don’t see how Rodman could start that many debates honestly, he’s undoubtedly HOF in my book
It’s crazy that someone with both personal accolades, team success, and being one of the most influential NBA players in history might start any debate.
Ben and Rodman weren’t considered shoe-ins? I know that their offense was bad but like, defense is literally half of the game and they were both elite at that. I guess I could see Rodman, but Ben was so damn good I can’t believe he wasn’t an easy pick.
No. They were considered shoo-ins.
Hard to call them shoo-ins when Wallace didn’t make in until his 5th year of eligibility and Rodman until his 6th.
You clearly don’t know what “shoo-in” means
With all due respect to all this players… I mean Rodman is above them all easily. I mean i love Wallace and he deserves it, but Dennis has five rings, all the shit you wrote and was one of the most beloved and fascinating personalities in history of basketball.
shoe-ins,
*shoo-in
Jesus, when you put it like that…
He had great biceps though.
All of them except Rose and Iggy should be shoe-ins.
One thing underrated about Billups is he went to 7 conference finals in a row.
shoo-in
Don’t forget, he’s also part of the 73-9 record. Although his back gave out by playoff time
Iguodala had a lot of seasons without an accolade such as all star or all defense where he was a very good player. A sub-all star in Ben Taylor’s terminology. His career value is thus much better than it looks from accolades.
If you look at career win shares he is at 100.36. Tim Hardaway had 84.89. Derrick Rose has 44.2. If one values career value more than peak value he definitely deserves more consideration than those two. And those numbers do not take into account the four championships and the FMVP.
4 rings brother. I’m with you that Iggy prob shouldn’t get in but it’s disingenuous to compare these guys without mentioning rings
Remember this comment when you’re arguing that Haslem should be in the HoF because of his rings + longevity lol
See, alongside those accolades, I wouldn’t consider D Rose an All Star…
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Rose shouldnt even be in the league
KC Jones being in the hall as a player is a joke. I understand he was part of the Cs super-dynasty but he has no place in there for his playing days. So the HoF’s credentials were marred pretty early.
Curry getting pwned by Dellavedova so thoroughly that a an elderly pine-rider gets the Finals MVP instead should really discredit him.
Turns out that Shams a sham!
That’s embarrassing.
No disrespect to Andre. Not a bad player but he is not in any way shape or form a hall candidate.
If Mitch Richmond and Bernard King make it, Iggy is a lock.
“West MJ” has far more individual accolades than Iggy.
Pretty sure Andre himself said he didn’t do enough for his resumé to make the HOF.
Still a great career