Andre Iguodala is one of the people that believe Kyrie Irving was done wrong on the NBA’s All-Time 75 list. The Golden State Warriors veteran is trying to relive old glories with the Dubs, this time helping a younger team unlock their potential.
The 3x NBA champion wasn’t happy seeing how bad the NBA treated Kyrie when they didn’t include the player on the infamous list. Kyrie was one of the players that didn’t make the cut alongside Dwight Howard, Klay Thompson, Vince Carter, and more.
Iggy wasn’t happy with that decision, defending Kyrie and placing him as a top-5 point guard of all time. Talking with Sam Amick of The Athletic, Andre showed respect to Kyrie, doubling on his comments from last month, saying Kyrie is a top 20 player of all time.
Andre Iguodala and I agree on this much: Kyrie Irving belongs on any list of the top 75 NBA players of all time, be it the league’s 75th-anniversary team or The Athletic’s rankings that we’ve been rolling out.
But top 20 (?!), as the Golden State veteran claimed on Twitter back on Oct. 20 when the Brooklyn Nets point guard was left off of the league’s list? That’s crazy.
I told him that, too. To his face.
“No, it’s not,” Iguodala fired back while standing near the Warriors’ Chase Center practice floor in San Francisco recently. “Name 20 guys better than him. I’ll wait. I’ve got time.”
When it came to the greatest point guards of all time, Iggy said there are only three players above Kyrie in that category. After those three, nobody can beat Kyrie, according to the 36-year-old swingman.
We can (just) go point guards. There’s only three point guards you can argue (who are) better than Kyrie. There’s only three. …
Magic, Steph, Isiah (Thomas). (They’re) the only guys that I will allow you to say are better than Kyrie. CP (Chris Paul), I’m not mad at, but I’ve got Kyrie. But people will argue that Kyrie hasn’t played enough games.
After that, Amick and Iggy had a back and forth, naming other legendary point guards, but none of them was better than Kyrie in Iguodala’s eyes. Steve Nash, John Stockton, James Harden, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Jason Kidd. None of them could surpass Kyrie on Iggy’s list.
There’s no doubt that Dre is very high on Kyrie. They clashed in that famous 2016 NBA Finals and Iguodala could see firsthand how great Irving is. After all his controversies, you can say Kyrie doesn’t deserve a spot on the list, but his performances on the court are good enough to grant him one place.
There’s nothing we can do to change that, but plenty of fans are convinced that Kyrie belonged to the list, and his COVID-19 controversies prevented him from being included.
