Earlier than he signed a two-year extension with the Golden State Warriors, Steve Kerr significantly thought of a really completely different future. In response to L’Equipe, the four-time NBA champion coach explored the potential of sooner or later teaching in Paris Basketball, a dialog that surfaced throughout the 2024 Olympics and continued within the weeks earlier than his new deal was finalized.
The report stated Paris Basketball president David Kahn first spoke with Kerr throughout the second week of the Paris Video games, after Kerr and his spouse spent a full day strolling town. Kahn stated he advised Kerr the job could be there for him “if he needed to make the leap” after his NBA profession ended.
Kerr finally stayed with the Warriors, however the concept was not dismissed. As L’Equipe famous, he later stated, “it might all the time occur sooner or later.”
The likelihood carried actual weight as a result of Kerr’s future had already change into a significant matter in Golden State. He had advised ESPN that he was 95 % sure the 2025-26 season could be his final with the Warriors, a mirrored image of the toll the job had taken after greater than a decade in cost.
That uncertainty got here throughout a tough season for Golden State. The Warriors completed 37-45, landed the No. 10 seed within the West and have been eradicated after the play-in spherical, their fourth missed playoff look since 2020.
Kerr had additionally revealed that continual again ache had worn him down for years, and that he had begun a remedy and journaling routine over the offseason to cope with each bodily and emotional stress. Nonetheless, when the season ended, he advised his workers, “I’m not leaving,” after the staff’s play-in win over the Clippers.
His determination to stay with the Warriors retains one of many NBA’s defining teaching eras alive for at the least one other season. Kerr entered that summer time with 5 championships as a participant and 4 extra as a head coach, whereas Golden State’s core nonetheless centered on Stephen Curry and Draymond Inexperienced.
The Paris dialogue additionally hinted at how Kerr views the sport past the NBA. A coach who has spent years round championship-level stress was clearly open to the potential of sooner or later bringing that have to Europe.
