Anddddd the champs are here. For Episode 2 of the Winging It podcast, Vince Carter, Kent Bazemore, and Anne Finberg pulled Andre Iguodala and Stephen Curry off the golf links and into the studio to discuss everything from guarding LeBron James in the NBA Finals to Trae Young’s hair. In this excerpt—which has been lightly edited—the Warriors duo goes back to the past to discuss what it was like play with Allen Iverson (and hang out with him off the court) and go one-on-one with Vince Carter at a kid.
Listen to the full podcast here.
Iggy on AI: “It Was Crazy”
Vince Carter: What was your time like playing with [Allen Iverson]? That’s during his rockstar days. I mean, I say rockstar meaning off the court as well.
Andre Iguodala: It was crazy. My rookie year was his most efficient season as far as, like, points and assists. He averaged like 30 and a crazy amount of assists. I hung out with him one night, just to see what it’s like to hang out with him
Carter: I told y’all the same thing, it only took one night.
Annie Finberg: What was it?
Iguodala: He didn’t do anything crazy. He wasn’t moving around doing nothing crazy, but he would just be up, just talking. He would like to just shoot the shit, just talk to the homies. And then, he’d have a couple drinks, and he just liked talking. When he’d kind of get buzzed a little bit, he’d get mad emotional. He’d touch your face and be like, “I love you, man, like a brother.” He’d start touching your face, and I’m like, “We play the Detroit Pistons tomorrow” —this was when Detroit was Detroit, and it was scary playing in there, that was a scary arena.
Carter: Back in the day, seeing Ben Wallace and them.
Iguodala: Man, [Iverson] had 50. He had 50 that night.
Carter: That’s unreal, man.
Iguodala: I could not believe it. I was like, man, this dude was up until four, five o’clock in the morning, man. He had like 50 that night, man. That’s when I was like: “This dude is incredible.”
Carter: He did all the time. That was the norm for him.
Finberg: So, he just doesn’t sleep?
Carter: He’s just capable.
Finberg: That’s crazy.
Kent Bazemore: Some dudes can operate like that.
Carter: Some people can function ...
Finberg: Not me.
Carter: It’ll catch up. You can do it for a couple of games, maybe a week, but then it catches up to you and you crash. It didn’t happen to him very often.
Finberg: What’s your craziest AI memory?
Iguodala: One that I could speak on?
Finberg: On the court.
Iguodala: On the court? Oh, he had this crazy thing, it happened all the time. You guys know the refs, superstars know the refs and have relationships with this one versus that one. Whenever [Iverson] was on the sideline, and it was one of them guards that would decide to pick him up full court, he’d be like, “Oh, this guy is going to try to play hard, he’s gonna try to pick me up full court.” AI would just dribble along the sideline, and if a guard touched him, he would just pick the ball up and run out of bounds. Referee would call a foul every time. So, I was like, “Bro, how you just pick the ball up and run?” He was like, “Man, these stupid motherfuckers ain’t gonna call travel on me or out of bounds. They gonna call a foul, and then he’s gonna stop pressuring me the rest of the game.” I was like, “Yo, man that’s crazy.”
Finberg: And it worked every time?
Iguodala: Yes.
Carter: To me, that’s the worst superstar to guard—[the one] who knows what they can get away with. That’s the hardest to guard or play against defensively when they know, whatever I do, it’s gonna work in my favor. On top of who he was and what could do.
Iguodala: Crazy. Literally just pick the ball up and go out of bounds on purpose, like man, “What you gonna call, man?”
Finberg: And it was a foul every time?
Iguodala: Every time.
Curry vs. Carter, One on One
Finberg: When [Carter] played with your dad, how old were you when you first met Vince?
Stephen Curry: Ten.
Finberg: Do you guys have a picture together that we can get?
Carter: I’m sure.
Curry: Definitely there’s one floating around. Probably from the Toronto Star. Is that right?
Carter: Yeah, for sure.
Curry: Playing one-on-one, 1999-2000.
Finberg: So, tell us about when you guys met and what you used to do after shootaround?
Carter: Well, he used to be at practice all the time.
Curry: Yeah, I was a snotty-nosed kid running around.
Carter: You and your brother, on the sideline, waiting every time, shooting—I mean, learning the game. Sometimes you don’t need the Xs and Os, it’s just constantly seeing the game, which you gain knowledge just from repetition and doing it all the time, being around it all the time. It was one of those things where I’d go work out after the game, and [Curry] was like, “You ready to go?” I remember all the time, “You ready?” It was like our routine. I’d go work out and there he is on the sideline getting ready, perfect form.
Finberg: So, you knew? You knew it from when he was 10?
Carter: Yeah, it was just one of those things. There’s kids who love basketball. But it’s another thing if [you] love it, understand it, you’re around it, and you become engulfed in it. Obviously he’s been engulfed in it, both you and your brother, for many years, so it was destined to happen. And the opportunity, he’s taken advantage of it.
Curry: That’s wild. We used to watch shootarounds, regular practices. I was actually just in Toronto three days ago. [It’s the] same practice gym up at the top, so I used to tell [Iguodala that at] shootarounds in the morning on game day, I’d watch and we’d shoot after. I might play [Carter] one-on-one for like 10 minutes, go back that night for the game. Me and my brother [Seth Curry] would go up to the practice facility.
For the first quarter, we’d just shoot. Second quarter: right across the concourse, there was this little PlayStation console right when you got off the elevator; we’d go play that for a quarter. Halftime and the third quarter, we’d go back and get more shots up, and then the fourth quarter, we’d sit and watch because we knew you were about to do something crazy. We’d sit there and watch the fourth quarter from that little top section that come down to the seats and watch. Obviously [it was] a blessed childhood to be around greatness and the highest level of basketball, but it just hammered down how much I love the game—[for] my brother as well. We all wanted to have a ball in our hands doing something.
Carter: That’s what it’s all about: laying in the bed as a kid, or in the mall, air-dribbling. That’s love. That’s love.
Finberg: How often did you guys play one-on-one?
Carter: Every home game.
Curry: Yeah, pretty much.
Finberg: Did he ever beat you?
Curry: He would never let me beat him.
Carter: Oh, nah. Heck no. Not getting ready for a game!
Finberg: Was it ever close?
Carter: I don’t know.
Curry: I might have gotten a couple lucky ones in there. I was 10, 11, so I was probably ... I don’t even know how tall you are at that age, and I was undersized anyway, [a] scrawny little kid. But I could shoot, though.
Carter: That’s the thing. You start off like, “Oh, I can’t get a shot off” to “I’m gonna figure out how to do it.” So it’s perseverance. [The next step is], “He ain’t gonna block my shot every game,” so now it’s pump-fake, whatever, I gotta travel to get it off. So, it’s just building those habits and understanding how to succeed and winning on the highest level. That’s kind of the highest level for him at that time, and it becomes second nature.
Curry: I even got talking to Lenny Wilkens. He would actually show me some [plays], write down plays on the whiteboard and stuff, talk about the game plan against whoever y’all [were playing]. Like [if] Allen Iverson was coming in, he’d talk about defensive adjustments and stuff. I don’t know if he was really caring about walking me through it or if he was practicing what he was gonna say to the team. Some of the stuff went over my head, but it broadened my horizons and my knowledge of the game.
Finberg: You grew up in the game, but when you would play against Vince, was he just one of your dad’s friends, one of your dad’s teammates, or was he like, Vince Carter.
Curry: No, he was Vinsanity, the whole deal. … Like I said, [during] fourth quarters, we’d go down [to watch] because I knew something crazy was about to happen. I remember one game, there was like, 10-to-15 seconds left, [Carter] was on the opposite wing across the bench, the home bench, and he was holding the ball in his left hand, just waiting, and it was an iso on the wing.
Carter: Houston.
Curry: You remember the game, right?
Carter: Yes.
Curry: We were sitting there watching like, “What’s he about to do?” Holding it like this, just sizing up, seeing what’s about to happen. [He] went baseline ...
Carter: And dunked on Olajuwon.
Curry: And dunked on somebody—for the game! That’s when Vinsanity was live. I wanted to wear his shoes in my own middle school games. I went to school in Toronto and everyone was talking about him, and how much he grew the game of basketball north of the border, but [also] obviously what he did for the NBA. There was definitely an awareness of what was going on.