Andre Iguodala has some brass ones.
LeBron James is a superhuman. That’s a fact. We pretend like he’s of this planet, when really, he’s not. He’s a four-time MVP, two-time NBA champion and just overall beast. So when he says he can’t be stopped, as he did when speaking with reporters last week, per Northeast Ohio Media Group’s Chris Haynes, you don’t think twice about it:
LeBron James was asked how do you slow Stephen Curry down. LeBron said the same way you slow me down. "You can't."
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) May 29, 2015
Iguodala, however, did. Apparently.
Asked about LeBron’s comments, Iguodala appeared unconvinced of LeBron’s other-worldliness. Per Diamond Leung of the San Jose Mercury News:
“It’s his personal opinion,” the Warriors’ Andre Iguodala said Saturday. “We’re all human, I would like to think.”
Shame on him.
Okay, fake troll job over. Promise.
Of course LeBron is human. While fans and writers (yours truly included) make jokes and marvel at LeBron’s abilities, players themselves are different. There has to be some level of appreciation in what he does among his NBA brethren, both teammates and opponents, but no one team—at least not a good one–is going to live in fear of what he does.
We sometimes forget how confident NBA players have to be. To be in their profession, constantly under the spotlight, susceptible to so much scrutiny no matter what they do, takes guts. On some level, it takes a sense of arrogance. You have to believe you’re the best, otherwise you’re not fit to play in such a hostile environment.
Sometimes, I myself think too much about writing, about putting shit out there that ends up being wrong or just doesn’t appeal the vast majority of people. And that feeling—legitimate though it is—cannot even be compared to those of a professional athlete. My willingness to put words out there daily to the public just doesn’t stack up to an athlete’s thick skin. End of story.
To that end, you can’t expect Iguodala or anyone else on the Warriors to bend at LeBron’s greatness. Likewise, you cannot take it as a sign of disrespect when comments like these are made.
Completely stopping LeBron is impossible. The Warriors, including Iggy, know this. He’s going to leave his imprint on the game, on the NBA Finals series, in some vein. But he’s played poorly in the past, and the Warriors have a crazy-good defense. They more than any other squad have the right to believe they can at least contain him.
Conversely, of course LeBron is going to say he’s unstoppable. Again, the confidence thing. He diverges from Iggy in that he pays homage to Stephen Curry, but he draws a parallel to himself.
There’s little point in reading too deeply into these sentiments, I know. But an interesting complex exists between what NBA players say and how their comments are interpreted.
Whenever anything like this creeps up, don’t automatically assume it’s a sign of disrespect or an incendiary device that LeBron will use to fuel his fire. This is all just in a day’s work for these guys, saying what they say, believing what they believe.
