NEW UPDATE -Without a connection to the band, reunion tours can be a rough watch. The folks on stage are older — they've lost some or all of that spark that made them special — and the show doesn't pack the same punch it once did.
But that's all OK. Because the show is for those who are connected. The goal of the reunion tour is to sell those fine people nostalgia — to transport them back in time, if only for a few moments.
The Warriors are going on a reunion tour this upcoming season. The core four of the team's first run to once-unfathomable greatness is back together for one last run. And while I don't think the return of Andre Iguodala makes the Warriors a title contender, I do think there will be more than a few wonderful spurts of nostalgia — moments when Warriors fans are transported back in time.
And that's worth a whole lot more than the veteran's minimum.
For as serious as we might be about basketball, it's still entertainment, and even a cold-hearted pessimist like me finds joy and comfort in Iguodala's return to the Bay on a one-year deal.
Iguodala isn't the same player he was during the first portion of the Warriors' dynastic run. Of course he isn't. He lost a step before he was traded away in the summer of 2019. But he can still contribute in a big way on the court. Reports of his demise have been greatly overstated.
That said, his impact off the court will be even more significant to the Dubs.
Iguodala was already a player-coach in his first stint with the Warriors. He bought into Steve Kerr's gospel with a quickness and had no problem teaching the good news of ball movement and switching defenses to anyone willing (and some who were unwilling) to listen.
During their glory years together, Kerr often called Iguodala the Warriors' "babysitter". Whenever Steph Curry and Draymond Green became too frenzied — whenever the Warriors' defense lost cohesion, Iguodala would be inserted in the game and calm everything down. He was the ultimate operator on the court — his all-around IQ, ability to run point and defensive wizardry were critical to the Warriors' ascent to juggernaut status. So much of the fabric of the three title banners that hang in Chase Center is Iguodala's.
So while, yes, it'll be fantastic to see Curry, Green, Klay Thompson, and Iguodala back together on the same team, the veteran forward's value will be more so in tutoring the inexperienced players on the Warriors' roster. There are some young, impressionable men who need to hear that good news.
On the court, I imagine Iguodala will be the Warriors' backup point guard this season. That could change, but given the Dubs' goals of limiting salary and overall age, I doubt it does. The soon-to-be 18-year veteran keeps himself in elite shape, so the concept of him playing 20 impactful minutes a night next to 18- and 20-year-olds is hardly a stretch.
And there will be nights where the Death Lineup gets back together again — albeit this time with Andrew Wiggins standing in for the departed Harrison Barnes.
(Reunion tours always seem to have at least one random guy playing with the band.)
And there will be moments with that lineup on the court when the true believers — the folks who lived and died with every bounce of the ball for those first few playoff seasons and the dynastic ones that followed — will be transported back to 2015.
It's a powerful force, nostalgia. And while it's strange that we've reached this point for the Warriors — the "living legends" era, when it's better to look back instead of looking forward — it's easier to embrace nostalgia than fight it. The players might not have the same spark they carried half a decade ago — save for the apparently immortal Curry, who has somehow improved — and the building they're playing in is on the wrong side of the Bay, but I'm greatly looking forward to that first game back together. I'm anticipating the last game, too.
And when this incredible run does reach its finale, I want to see a No. 9 up in the rafters next to those championship banners he helped hang.
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