Ever since the start of the 2019-2020 season, any talk about Andre Iguodala has all but been silenced. But now, with all players becoming eligible for trades on Dec. 15, it’s a good time to get caught up on everything that’s happened.
Expert Note: This article was partially taken from an earlier-published piece on the site. You can find that here.
Nobody ever said the end of your career was easy. From Kobe Bryant‘s injuries, to Shaquille O’Neal bouncing around the league like a rubber ball, to Jeremy Lin finding out that the NBA just didn’t have a job for him; the end of your career is almost bound to come with a number of problems.
Andre Iguodala is finding this out the hard way.
When he was traded from the Golden State Warriors to the Memphis Grizzlies during the crazy NBA summer of 2019, the general assumption was that he would be bought out of his $17 million contract. For that to happen, chances are one side would have to lose money, and it seems like that is the tripping point.
Memphis didn’t want to lose all $17 million and have nothing in return, and Iguodala wanted the full value of his contract. If he had decided to just exit the league after a buyout, this problem almost certainly wouldn’t have come up. But the thought of them giving up $17 million and then having to face Iguodala was too much to the Grizzlies to be ok with.
Then, this happens:
Gotta know when to give it up...
— andre (@andre) September 29, 2019
So it seems like this saga will continue for these two parties. But the bigger, and easier to answer, question is how did we all get here? What weird twists and turns led us to this stalemate?