Andre Iguodala turned 40 years old on Sunday night, and George Karl, his former head coach, took the opportunity to fire yet another shot at him.
“Damn Andre is 40 this weekend. Impressive. I heard moles don’t usually live more than 5 or 6 years in the wild.”
Damn Andre is 40 this weekend. Impressive. I heard moles don’t usually live more than 5 or 6 years in the wild. 😜 pic.twitter.com/tGKIGiKFlF
— George Karl (@CoachKarl22) January 28, 2024
Karl has maintained for years that he believes Iguodala was a mole for the Golden State Warriors during their first-round playoff series against the Denver Nuggets in 2013. The 57-25 Nuggets were clear favorites heading into that series against the 47-35 Warriors but shockingly lost in six games.
Karl thinks it was because Iguodala, who was a Nugget at the time, was revealing information about their schemes and coverages to the Warriors. As for what led to the 72-year-old suspecting there was a mole, it stemmed from comments that then-Warriors head coach Mark Jackson had made during the series.
Jackson was accusing the Nuggets of playing dirty, as he felt they were targeting Stephen Curry’s ankles, and claimed someone on their team admitted to it.
“I got inside information that some people don’t like that brand of basketball and they clearly didn’t co-sign it,” Jackson said. “They wanted to let me know they have no parts in what was taking place. Let the best team win. And let everybody, with the exception of going down with a freak injury, let everybody leave out of here healthy. That’s not good basketball.”
Karl believes the one feeding this “inside information” was Iguodala, who averaged 18.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.0 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game in the series. The fact that Iguodala then signed with the Warriors on a four-year, $48 million deal in the offseason only strengthened his belief.
The reason why this whole situation stings Karl to this day might be that he got fired by the Nuggets for losing that series. They parted ways with him just 29 days after he had been named Coach of the Year for the 2012-13 season by the NBA, and that would have stung a lot.
Andre Iguodala Previously Addressed The Accusation Made By George Karl
Karl has brought up this topic a fair few times over the years, and Iguodala did speak about it during an appearance on the Club Shay Shay podcast in 2023.
“We had an interesting scouting report with Steph and Klay (Thompson),” Iguodala said. “We just gonna rough them up a little bit. It was getting a bit borderline… I’m in front of their bench and he (Mark Jackson) was like, ‘Yo, why y’all trying to hurt my players.’ and I’m like, ‘Coach, I don’t move like that.'”
Iguodala claimed that was all he said, and he joked with Jackson later that he threw him under the bus with his comments. The one-time All-Star then stated Karl was just making excuses after he got outcoached in the series.
“George didn’t have an adjustment for them boys and them boys beat us,” Iguodala continued. “And typical George, George is gone run with a narrative that he gone run away from what it was. You just got out-coached… So then he looks for something else and he’s done it throughout his career.”
(starts at 0:53 mark):
.@andre was called a mole after leaving the Denver Nuggets to join the Golden State Warriors 👀
🎧: https://t.co/JR4lbY4iCp
📺: https://t.co/wyeFZALWFM pic.twitter.com/eGiXrdDImj
— Club Shay Shay (@ClubShayShay) March 8, 2023
Iguodala added that Karl is now just looking for attention by putting out controversial posts on social media. It will be interesting to see if the four-time NBA champion reacts to his former head coach once again bringing up the topic of him being a mole.
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