The seventh man of the Warriors! The legendary Green Leaf! Can he be inducted into the Hall of Fame?

On February 24, 2025, the Warriors officially retired Iguodala's No. 9 jersey. He became the seventh player in the history of the Warriors to have his jersey retired.

Looking back at Iguodala's basketball career, he has earned enough respect both on and off the court.

Referring to his time with the Warriors, he had a net rating of +5.3 points. Although it is not top-notch, for a player who spends most of his time on the bench, this is definitely an astonishing statistic.

As a typical all-purpose green leaf, he is both offensive and defensive, and can also affect the game at critical moments. His only offensive flaw is that he is perfectly covered up by being paired with top scorers such as Curry, Clay, and Durant.

After he left the Warriors, the Western Conference immediately showed a hundred schools of thought contending. Without Iguodala, the versatile Swiss Army knife, the Warriors obviously lacked a defensive antidote when facing large wings and top scorers.

Although he is not the team's first scoring point on the offensive end, his passing and field control abilities are quite good, even to a level that no one in the Warriors can replace. To this day, whenever the team's offense is limited and its defense is unstable, fans look up at the No. 9 jersey flying above the arena and may miss the invisible warrior back then.

With such an outstanding performance, a question worthy of discussion arises:

Is Iguodala worthy of being elected to the Hall of Fame?

Retiring a jersey is honorable enough, but the Hall of Fame is another high level of recognition.

Since its establishment in 1959, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has mainly honored players, coaches, referees and others who have made outstanding contributions in the field of basketball. FIBA also has its own Hall of Fame, which mainly rewards players and coaches who have made outstanding achievements in international competitions.

From this perspective, players selected into the Hall of Fame not only look at NBA data, but also their contribution to overall basketball.

There are many examples in NBA history, such as the 1983 No. 1 pick Ralph Sampson, who formed a twin tower with Olajuwon in the Rockets. However, he only played less than ten years in his career due to injuries, and his personal data is not dazzling. In 456 games in his career, he averaged 15.4 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, with a total score of 7,039 points and a total rebound of 4,011.

Although his personal performance is quite meager, he still relied on his dominant performance during the NCAA period and was successfully elected to the Hall of Fame in 2012.

As for Iguodala, his professional resume is quite topical.

Won NBA championships four times in his career, and also won FMVP in 2015. Although the FMVP that year was quite controversial, thanks to this honor, he still joined the FMVP club.

according to Basketball Reference's data model is used to evaluate the probability of FMVP being selected into the Hall of Fame. In terms of player efficiency, there is a slight gap between the performance of Iguodala and the Hall of Fame winner. The average performance of Hall of Fame players per 75 possessions is 18.6 points, 7.1 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.9 blocks, while Iguodala in the same environment is 13.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 5 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.6 blocks.

Scores, rebounds and blocks are slightly lower, but assists and steals are superior.

Looking at career cumulative data, Hall of Fame players have career averages of 13,465 points, 5,013 rebounds, 2,990 assists, 928 steals, and 687 blocks, while Iguodala has accumulated 13,968 points, 6,047 rebounds, 5,147 assists, 1,765 steals, and 633 blocks in his career. In terms of these statistics, except for slightly lower blocks, all other aspects are above the Hall of Fame average.

Combined with high-level data, Iguodala also has good and bad qualities. Looking at the average high-level data of the Hall of Fame winner, the BPM is 2.2, the PER is 18.5, and the WS/48 is 0.142; while Iguodala's high-level data is 2.9 BPM, PER is 15.7, and WS/48 is 0.125. Many statistics are not as good as the Hall of Fame average.

Of course, there is a special direction that needs to be considered. Iguodala is the team's snake oil substitute. His game value is difficult to reflect on the ordinary game data sheet most of the time. This link is also likely to win him some points.

Another aspect, the most important part for being selected into the Hall of Fame, comes from storytelling and topicality.

Looking at Iguodala's career trajectory, Iguodala, who debuted in Philadelphia, was a key connection point in the Warriors' peak era. With the blessing of FMVP, he has four championship rings in his hands, multiple All-Defensive lineups, and an Olympic gold medal. This kind of resume is enough for him to occupy a place among the candidates for the Hall of Fame.

It's just that for him, being elected to the Hall of Fame doesn't seem to matter. Borrowing from his interview:

"Except for Michael Jordan's induction speech, who remembers anyone else?"

Looking at it now, Iguodala's No. 9 jersey has been hung above the Warriors Arena. This is already the best tribute to his intangible value. As for the Hall of Fame, it is still difficult to see the exact answer to this question, and it will most likely take a few more years to be announced.