Quinn Cook was the Warriors’ only DNP last week against the Pelicans. After the game, Quinn got up some shots at Oracle, moving around the arc while arena workers buzzed around the court to tidy up for the night.
“Quinn’s got the work ethic,” Andre Iguodala said. “Quinn understands it’s a business. He listens. He sees the work Steph puts in, KD puts in. He comes to work.”
Andre then paused and took the conversation in a different direction.
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“He’s sort of like me. He doesn’t enjoy the NBA because there’s more work. It’s work. You forget you’re in the NBA.”
Andre, in his 15th NBA season, explained this feeling is a gift and a curse.
“I always say, I never enjoy my career,” he said. “Well, here and there (I do). But when we win championships, I never really enjoy it because it’s like, all right, we got to go back to work tomorrow.”
Aware of how the words “I never enjoy my career” might look as a quote, Andre was careful to articulate the feeling of never being satisfied with his gratefulness to play basketball for a living.
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“Sometimes I take it for granted ... the talent I’ve been given,” he said. “Because I forget there’s only 450 guys in this league. But if I don’t put the work in, someone’s going to take my job. I do it because I love the game.”
Andre described the feeling of liking being in the NBA but not enjoying being the NBA as “the craziest thing ever.”
“The only time I enjoy it is, like, perfect plays. When we have a perfect play?” Andre clapped his hands. “In Chicago, I had fun.”
He said last Monday in Chicago was “a business game.” The Warriors had 34 assists and seven turnovers to thrill a perfectionist like him.
“The way the ball was moving ... Klay wasn’t taking, like, crazy shots. He was getting good looks,” Andre recalled about Klay Thompson’s NBA record-breaking night with 14 3-pointers.
“Some of those possessions were perfect, like bing, bing, bing, bing,” he said as he mimicked the ball movement. “Steph penetrates, kicks it out. Things interchange like they normally do. And it happens simultaneously.”
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Andre snapped his fingers.
“It seemed like us playing, but it was just improvisation. Just perfect basketball.”
The perfectionist cracked a smile.
“That’s when it’s fun to me. But that’s rare, though.”