For nearly two decades, Andre Iguodala established a reputation as one of the N.B.A.’s most versatile players, an All-Star and Olympic gold medalist who racked up four championships with the Golden State Warriors.
Now, Iguodala has told DealBook exclusively that he is retiring from pro basketball to focus on his other career: start-up investor. He will run Mosaic, a $200 million venture capital fund that he just raised with his longtime business partner, Rudy Cline-Thomas.
Iguodala’s disclosure ends years of speculation. The 39-year-old had suggested that last year’s season would be his last, only to shoot down rumors about it earlier this year. But now is the time to hang up his sneakers. “It’s been a blessing to play for that long,” he told DealBook. (He hasn’t fully come to grips with it yet: “I don’t know if it’s actually hit me yet,” he said.)
He’s embracing his next act. Though he and Cline-Thomas had begun buying tech stocks in 2010, the two dived deeply into start-ups when he joined the Warriors in 2013. “When I initially went out to the Bay Area, it was my intent to have success on and off the court,” Iguodala said. “I thought about how to get access.”
That led to meetings with venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz, and then to taking stakes in start-ups, including Zoom and the cybersecurity provider Cloudflare.
It is a model now followed by many pro athletes, from the N.F.L.’s Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers to Iguodala’s longtime Warriors teammate Steph Curry. “Athletes are becoming smarter and smarter,” Iguodala said, asserting that their competitiveness and an ability to speak to audiences help to sell and scale products.
Mosaic is now his focus. The firm will home in on seed- and early-stage investments in enterprise software, fintech health care and sports companies. Iguodala and Cline-Thomas closed Mosaic’s first fund — whose investors included endowments, institutions and founders of companies they have already backed — in May.
Mosaic’s investments include Vessel, a builder of modular multifamily homes, and Athletes First, an N.F.L. talent agency and management firm.
Sports franchise ownership is another focus. Iguodala is a co-owner of Leeds United, an English soccer club; Bay Area F.C., the National Women’s Soccer League team; and, along with former teammates Curry and Klay Thompson, the San Francisco branch of TGL, the upstart golf league co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Iguodala’s highest aspiration? Owning an N.B.A. team. “The timing has to be right,” he said, but “that’s definitely the ultimate goal.”
Thanks for all the great years, champ! Will never forget the swing in the 2015 Finals that was putting Iguodala in as a starter.
Time for some of my favorite Iguodala plays as a Warrior:
Steal on Lillard to seal victory: 2019 WCF Game 2
Strip steal on LeBron to virtually end the 2017 Finals: 2017 Finals Game 3
Dagger to end 2019 Finals Game 2
Dunk on Will Barton: 2022 WCR1 Game 3
Buzzer Beater vs OKC: 2014 Regular Season
The Mike Miller Tribute of Losing a Shoe and Draining a 3: 2015 Finals Game 1
Bonus:
Andre Iguodala coaches the Warriors against the Suns: 2018 Regular Season
The High-Fives with Wiggins in his Last Playoff Substitution: 2022 Finals Game 6
Coaching up Wiggins: 2022 Finals Game 3
Letting the Iguodala run the timeout is such a flex. Kerr just chilling on the bench looking at the opposing coaching staff (at least that's what he's doing in my head canon).
The First Take segment after that game was great. It turned from Warriors players coaching to how awful the Suns were to get blown out by 46 points that game lmao.
You covered most of the major ones but i like in the 15/16 season he hits 2 free throws in a row against the nets to force overtime to keep the perfect start of the season alive
If only he finished this play