CLEVELAND — Andre Iguodala had the most difficult assignment in the NBA Finals.
“Guarding LeBron James,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr, “had to be the hardest job in basketball.”
Heck, that might be the toughest job on Earth.
“Exhausting,” Iguodala said.
But Iguodala, who guarded James in the Finals and helped turn the series when he was inserted in the starting lineup, earned the Finals MVP award, throwing in a season-best 25 points in Golden State’s 105-97 Game 6 title-clinching game Tuesday.
“I’m not thinking about anything,” Iguodala said. “My mind is blank. I’m celebrating the moment with my teammates. Those are things you enjoy most.”
Iguodala, a former All-Star, started the first 758 games of his career and never came off the bench — until this season in Golden State. When they spoke about sacrifice around the Warriors, they started with Iguodala, who readily accepted the sixth-man role.
“He was special, he deserves that finals MVP,” said Steph Curry, the regular season MVP.
“I want to be like Steph when I grow up,” Iguodala said on the court after the Warriors clinched.
“Andre is the guy we all look to when things are going bad,” said Draymond Green, who tallied a triple-double in the decisive game.
Iguodala winning the MVP was the answer but one of the great questions through the series was: Who was the MVP?
Arguments went different ways.
“You could make an argument that it could have gone to Steph. It could have gone to LeBron,” Kerr said, “but for us it was really fitting that the award went to Andre because he sacrificed his starting role from the first game of the season.”
Green played with a major chip on his shoulder — he was a second-round pick out of Michigan State.
“They told me I couldn’t do it, I could not play,” said Green, who recorded a triple-double Tuesday. “They can still say, ‘He’s too small, he’s too this, too that.’ They can never take this away from me.”
Shaun Livingston got emotional on the podium after the game. Livingston, a Net last year, has made it all the way back from a horrific knee injury his rookie year.
“Everyone knows my journey,” Livingston said. “People count you out. No belief. Going through the D-League, trying to make it on 10-day contracts.”
Cavs center Timofey Mozgov called the loss “the toughest one in my life to swallow,” made harder by what could have been had Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love been healthy. “Those guys were a big part of the team, but we tried to keep it [going] and stay until the last moment.”