NBA Player Profile – Andre Iguodala
Name: Andre Iguodala
Team: Philadelphia 76ers
Position: Shooting Guard
NBA Statistics: 14.1 (points), 5.6 (assists), 5.9 (rebounds)
Background: On January 28, 1984 Andre ‘Iggy’ Iguodala was born to Frank Iguodala (Snr) and Linda Shanklin in Springfield, Illinois. He attended the Lanphier High school where he received his first major individual honour, being named the Chicago Sun-Times Player of the Year. That season as he senior he guided his team to the runner-up spot in the Illinois High School Association Class AA state tournament.
In 2002, he undermined his contract with the University of Arkansas to sign with the University of Arizona after the former fired head coach Nolan Richardson. He achieved relative success in his first season with the Arizona Wildcats as he was named to the Pac-10 All Freshmen team.
His following season his performances improved tremendously, entering Pac-10 folklore history as being the only player nest to Hall-of-Fame bound Jason Kidd to record multiple triple-doubles in a season. leading his team in rebounds, assists and steals ‘Iggy’ was voted MVP of the Wildcats, giving him the confidence to declare himself eligible for the 2004 NBA Draft.
In spite of the doubt, the 76ers took ‘Iggy’ as the ninth overall 2004 draft pick and immediately placed him in the starting line-up to benefit from playing with Allen Iverson. That season he was the only player of the franchise to start in all 82 regular season games as well as the five playoff games that the 76ers played in. His overall game improved over the years and he was able to lead the 76ers to play-off berths in the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 season.
As he tries to lead his team to another playoff berth, the 2010 FIBA World Championship winner’s 76ers currently sits in sixth place in the conference.
