Q&A
What’s your best tip to aspiring basketball players to improve their defense? You’ve got to learn to enjoy pain. I call it good pain. You train your legs to sit down in a defensive position for minutes at a time. It’s all in your feet, just moving
your feet. Keeping your eyes on your defender, not watching the ball. You learn how to be a solid defender, where you’re not so concerned about getting steals or blocks, just working hard to keep your man from getting to his position. All of that stuff comes with it.
That means pain. There’s no glory in being a defender like there is in being a scorer or a shooter. I watched great defenders like Scottie Pippen growing up. Learning how to defend guys like he did helped me a lot. + + +
You played golf as a team during the play- offs, even with your season on the line in the Western Conference semifinals against Memphis. How does golf help the Warriors? Being on a golf course can put every- thing back in perspective. You can be down, but you’re not out of it.
Being on a golf course can put everything back in perspective. You can be down, but you’re not out of it.
We started to play golf and you
realize, when it’s not going the way you want it to, how to keep yourself composed and not let your emotions get too high or too low while you are playing. The game will humble you. That will show on the court. In the game of basketball, you can be up or you can be down. If you’re down, it can turn around with the snap of a finger. We were in a situation against
Memphis where we were down 2-1, and everyone thought throughout the season that our style of play wasn’t made for the playoffs, or to win a championship. We were pretty much counted out. It’s funny how the media works when things are going great versus when they are not going so well. In a short span of time you go from an all-time high to an all-time low.
+ + +
How many of your teammates play golf? Steph is a great golfer. He can flat out play. He’s a scratch guy. I came around a little late, a couple of years ago, trying to get it right. I started hanging with a few friends. Pete Myers, the assistant coach with the
Warriors my first year, I caught the bug from him. He showed me how to hit the ball. Klay (Thompson) is a pretty good
golfer. He doesn’t get out there too much. Most natural shooters are really good golfers. They have the hand-eye coordination and they can transfer that to pretty much any sport. Steve Kerr is really good. He’s a
shooter. And Jarron Collins, he was a big man when he played and an assis- tant coach now, he’s a solid golfer, too. And we’ve got a few guys in our P.R. department. Dan Martinez can play. So we’ve got a handful of guys in the organization that love to play.
+ + +
What is your favorite course? I’ve got a few courses I like. Pasatiempo is a course I like a lot. I’ve played there a couple of times. You’ve got to use all of your clubs and hit different shots. + + +
Have you been down to Pebble Beach yet? I have. Last time I was down there I played really well and shot a 90, and I tripled No. 16 and doubled No. 17. I was having a good round. I enjoy Pebble.
Iguodala playing No.11 at Pacific Dunes
46 /
NCGA.ORG / FALL 2015
PHOTO: GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
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