In November of 2005, near the start of Iguodala's second season, he tangled with Kobe in Kobe's hometown of Philadelphia and won.
“He was 3 for 17, only had 17 points,” Iguodala said. “I was locking that s— up.”
Like any great decade-old tale, some of the statistics have been exaggerated. Kobe wasn't 3 of 17, he was 7 of 17 for those 17 points. But that's still an inefficient night mostly due to Iguodala.
“Then Phil Jackson said in the paper: 'I've never seen anyone guard Kobe as good as that,'” Iguodala said. “Then Aaron McKie has a quote, he said: 'Yeah, man, this kid grew up in the era of Kobe, he studied Kobe, so he can guard Kobe.'”
Two months later, the Sixers made the return trip to Los Angeles. Iguodala swears he'd forgotten about the first matchup. Kobe obviously hadn't.
“He came in the visiting locker room and asked my teammates: 'Yo, where's Dre,'” Iguodala said. “They're like, 'Oh, he's on the court shooting.' He just said: 'Tell him 50 tonight.' It was like he'd been waiting for that game.”
Kobe guaranteed Iguodala 50 pregame and then delivered him to the doorstep of it, making 19 of his 29 shots, hitting all seven of his 3s and scoring 48 points before subbing out of a blowout win with 4 minutes still left to go.
“(Warriors assistant Chris) DeMarco found it on — what's the system they use for old games? Synergy?” Iguodala said. “He's like, 'Yo, I'm watching it and was like, you know the Staples Center logo? He shot two 3s from the 'A' in Staples Center.' He was making some incredible shots. I remember coming back to the bench and Mo Cheeks was like: 'Young man, you did a helluva job tonight.'”
“I remember that Andre,” West said, cracking up. “I remember that.”
Iguodala didn't want to take all the fault.
“He was just putting Chris Webber in the pick-and-roll,” he said. “I was dead meat.”
So which is it: 8 or 24?
“8,” Iguodala said. “8 had bounce. 8 was the one who came in the locker room and told me you're getting 50 tonight.”
