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

Iguodala admits chasing the regular season win record cost them the championship in 2016

It’s long been suspected that the Warriors ran out of gas in 2016 chasing (and eventually obtaining) the single-season win record previously held by the Bulls. They won 73-games, but blew a 3-1 lead in the Finals to the Cavs, the biggest NBA Finals meltdown ever.

Logical thinking would lead you to believe that the Warriors spent too much energy going for the record, especially after seeing Kerr adjust his ‘load management’ with his team the following season.

However, no one has ever come out and so blatantly said that the record cost them the title like Iguodala did.

"We chased that record with everything we had because we needed to be not only the best team in the league, but the best team of all time. There was just a mental fatigue that set in. [The record] had killed us. Plain and simple. You could point to and debate all the bizarre things that happened in that series… But the only thing that was completely clear to me and to all of us was that every decision that we had made in order to get to seventy-three wins had cost us the title."

A lot of things could have gone differently that season, but it is what it is. It was a tough pill to swallow, but following up with signing Kevin Durant and winning back-to-back titles was plenty to wash away the pain.