37-year-old Andre Iguodala made his Warriors return this season, coming back to the franchise that he won three titles with years ago.
In his time away from Dub Nation, Iguodala has helped nurture a growing dynasty in Miami for two seasons by playing alongside Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
In a recent conversation with Draymond Green on his new podcast (The Draymond Green Show), the NBA veteran laid out some of the differences he saw between the Heat and Warriors which apparently includes some differences in locker-room culture.
“Our environment is a little more relaxed,” explained Iguodala. “It’s got some hippy vibes to it, go at your own pace, go as you please. Miami is kind of like, straight and narrow, everybody in formation. I could see weaknesses in both. Because both had a lot of success—Pat Riley is probably one of the most successful player/coaches/GMs in NBA history. He’s done it at every level. We had success here, and I saw some flaws here. Being in those two places, I tried to step back and appreciate the value in both sides. When I was there, I saw some things we did with the Warriors that I could bring to some of the players to the team—some guys might not be as mentally strong at a young age, nudge them and get them to open up a little bit.”
“It’s kind of like who you are, you know, you’re so brash and you’re competitive and you have that fire, that’s the Heat culture. I was able to appreciate that even more. I was like, ‘Damn, the Draymonds are even more valuable than I thought,’ and I saw that up close every day.”
As Iggy illustrated there, there’s no perfect formula to winning. The Heat are much more structured and organized while the Warriors are much more relaxed, although both sides have their positives and negatives.
Really, it comes down to what best suits that particular team at that particular time. As two of the best teams in their respective conferences, the Heat and Warriors are clearly doing something right.
But we’ll see which of them gets farther in the end.
