7 revealing moments from Andre Iguodala’s memoir “The Sixth Man”

Iguodala alludes to possible corruption among NBA refs

While Andre doesn’t drop any names or make any official claims, throughout the book he certainly alludes to a certain level of corruption/bias that he believes exists among NBA referees.

Before the Donaghy scandal, I wouldn’t have believed him, but after that, hell, anything is possible. Don’t forget Donaghy’s best buddy Scott Foster, who received an astounding 134 calls from Donaghy over the period he was proven to have fixed games, is still an active NBA ref (that’s 121 more times than he called any other ref).

Quite the coincidence.

Speaking about the referees, Iguodala says:

"It was a phenomenon we were noticing more and more. We would be clearly smacking a team around, and then they would start getting foul calls that would change the momentum of the game. I’ve been around this sport for decades, and it’s not unclear to me what is happening, but it’s one of those things you are not allowed to say anything about, lest you get fired. You try not to say too much or take it too seriously. But that night I heard a referee say to a teammate, “Don’t look at me.” There was something about that phrase. It stuck with me, echoed in my mind."

Iguodala goes on to talk about referee bias:

"You can’t say that [the referees] might actually be human beings with thoughts and feelings and prejudices that sometimes cause them to make mistakes or color the way they see things."

Not dropping the issue, Iguodala continues towards the end of the book:

"I recently had an assistant coach from another team text me after we played them. He and I went way back to my teenage years. He wanted to congratulate us on keeping our composure during the game. “What do you mean,” I asked. “Our game plan,” he said, “is just to foul the sh*t out of you. We tell our guys every time-out, just foul the ball handler every time. We know they’re not going to call it.”"

Iguodala’s stance on the referees is surely one of the strongest that I have ever heard publicly from a player. If you read the book, you’ll find that these are just a few examples of many that he brings up the topic.

I must say, Iguodala does a good job of being as politically correct as you can be while proposing such a controversial idea that would have drastic implications for the NBA.