Former Warriors veteran says Stephen Curry is so amazing that he can make opposing players cheer for him
- Andre Iguodala said Stephen Curry is so good that opponents sometimes cheer for him.
- Iguodala said he found himself rooting for Curry this season and others do the same.
- Iguodala recalled Curry getting so hot during a scrimmage that players stopped to admire it.
Andre Iguodala has been on both sides of a Stephen Curry eruption and knows how impressive it can be as an opponent.
Speaking on JJ Redick's podcast, "The Old Man and the Three," Iguodala, who spent six years playing alongside Curry with the Golden State Warriors, said Curry has a unique ability to turn opponents into fans.
Iguodala said opponents can sometimes appreciate Curry's greatness better than his own teammates.
"When you're in the game playing with someone that good, you're not really seeing how good they are," Iguodala, who is now with the Miami Heat, said. "Because you're locked in to do what you gotta do, so you're missing out on, like, greatness by playing with greatness. That's the funny thing.
"When I watched Steph play this past season, I caught myself being a fan a few times."
Iguodala said former NBA player Evan Turner once told him that during the 2019 Western Conference Finals between the Warriors and Portland Trail Blazers, Turner had to stop himself from cheering for Curry because Curry was so impressive.
"When we played them in the Western Conference Finals, Evan was like, 'Bro, I almost clapped when he made a shot. I forgot I was playing against him. I had never seen nothing like that.'"
Iguodala added: "Evan said Steph made two threes one time, and [Turner] was like, 'Damn, he good!' But he was like, 'Man, I had to catch myself.'"
Iguodala has seen other players have similar reactions. Iguodala was with the Denver Nuggets in 2013, when Curry famously shot a corner three-pointer in front of the Nuggets bench, then turned around while the ball was in midair and stared down the bench.
"He lets the ball go and turns around and tells them to shut up. The ball is in, like, midair, it's not even close to the rim," Iguodala said. "And the whole team went like [quiet]. This is the opposing team, like, 'Yo, I've never seen that before during a game." Iguodala, however, said he was unimpressed with that particular play.
"This one damn practice, man, Steph went crazy," Iguodala said. "He wasn't missing ... One time, I got mad and forgot he was on my team and pushed him, he still made the shot. I mean, we played about seven minutes, he must have had 25 points. It was crazy.
"At one point, Shaun Livingston just stopped and was like, 'Yo, I don't know if I've ever seen anything like this.'"
Iguodala said that teammates are often impressed with Curry's demeanor. He said Curry is low-maintenance and often unfazed by what's going on around him, though he still maintains a competitive fire.
"He has that competitive edge where he wants to prove to everybody like, 'I'm that dude.' But at this point, it's like, nobody can deny him that. Everybody knows who he is."