Andre Iguodala beats out LeBron James for finals MVP award
Andre Iguodala started every game he suited up for over the first 10 years of his career, with only a single All-Star appearance and two All-Defensive teams to show for it.
His greatest individual accomplishment - the Bill Russell Award as 2015 NBA Finals MVP - now caps the one season that saw him come off the bench.
Kerr on Andre: "An All-Star, an Olympian saying, 'OK, I'll come off the bench' set the tone for everything we were able to accomplish."
— CBS Sports NBA (@CBSSportsNBA) June 17, 2015
Iguodala, who entered the series with finals MVP odds as high as 125-1 in some spots, received seven of 11 media votes for the award.
Per @NBAPR, here's the Finals MVP ballot total.
Iggy: 7 votes
LBJ: 4 votes pic.twitter.com/2Ay0VRQBcu
— Eddy Rivera (@erivera7) June 17, 2015
Iguodala, whose season-high 25 points matched Stephen Curry for the team-lead in Tuesday's championship-clinching Game 6, finished with the third-lowest scoring average ever for a finals MVP and is the first Bill Russell award winner not to have started every game in The Finals.
The 31-year-old averaged 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, four assists, and 1.3 steals over the course of the six-game series, with his Game 4 insertion into the starting lineup a key turning point for the Golden State Warriors.
"He saved this season for us." Draymond Green on Andre Iguodala
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) June 17, 2015
Iguodala's defensive effort on LeBron James also played a large role in keeping James' efficiency well below his usually lofty standards, as LeBron shoot 38 percent with Iguodala on the floor. In addition, the Warriors performed an incredible 26.1 points per 100 possessions better with Iguodala on the court as opposed to on the bench in The Finals.
It's no surprise that Iguodala's stiffest competition for the award came from James, who could have become the first NBA Finals MVP since Jerry West in 1969 to come from the losing team. James averaged an unfathomable 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds, 8.8 assists, and 1.3 steals in nearly 46 minutes per game, with 86.6 percent of Cavs possessions while he was on the floor ending with either a James field-goal attempt, free-throw attempt, assist or turnover.
In the end, that unprecedented offensive burden and Iguodala's staunch defense was too much for James to overcome as he tried to will an undermanned Cavs team to victory. And the voters - or seven out of 11 of them, at least - decided to the victor go the spoils.