Steve Kerr (Golden State Warriors Head Coach) Sits Down with TK

Welcome to the TK Show with The Athletic Bay Area's editor-in-chief, Tim Kawakami.

Hey everybody, Tim Kawakami here recording from Warriors headquarters. Basketball is going to be dribbling in just a little bit. Really glad to have as our special guest A multiple-time appearance for Steve Kerr, your head coach of the Golden State Warriors. You got any other titles, or is that still just head coach?

That's all, just head coach.

Nice and clean. Happy birthday, by the way, yesterday.

Thank you.

And celebrated it by speaking at Salesforce, at Dreamforce.

Yeah, just what everybody wants to do on their birthday.

I think they set that up. Like, you know what, birthday, what do I want? What do I want? That was a small business talk? What kind of things did you hit on when you're talking a small business topic?

Talk about the Warriors?

There you go. Really small business, Steve. It's a tiny little business.

Well, yeah, small business convention. And then, you know, I actually have done a lot of this, this last couple of years, kind of corporate speaking stuff. And it's one of the great things living in the Bay Area. There's so many interesting people and companies, and I've learned so much and I've seen so many really cool places to work, and it's really fun to get out there and just meet really interesting, fascinating people and see what's going on in the Bay Area. It's probably the most interesting place to live in the country.

I think some of your players have found that out, and they're out there. I mean, when you— they're all asking you about the Warriors, right? Are you asking business people about their businesses?

Sure.

Anything that you think you might have picked up and you might have Might be implementing here?

Gosh, I mean, the gamut of things that I've— or places that I've been, they run from, let's see, Clif Bar, which was fascinating. They're right here in Emeryville, close to our facility. Incredible company to see their culture. to see them kind of come alive as I walked into the building and see, you could kind of, it kind of reminded me of the Warriors where you just feel like everybody's kind of happy and doing their thing and really excited about their work and working together. Just witnessing that culture and feeling it when you walk into a building is really cool. I spoke at a Clean Air Act convention And I was convinced to buy an electric vehicle.

Oh, really? Wow. So you're driving one?

I'm in the market for one right now. So that's just barely getting started. I mean, let's see what else. I went to a fascinating VC retreat with a very small company in Silicon Valley, 11 people, Total in the VC, in the venture firm. And we went to the top of a mountain in Lake Tahoe. We happened to have our coaching retreat in Lake Tahoe.

Yeah.

And the next day, I was invited to this retreat for this VC fund and company. And it's incredible, just like I said, what you learn when you visit with people from another area. Because everything translates, right? You're always dealing with human beings and relationships and trying to be successful and trying to find ways to be successful and manage people. So everything always translates, but people are doing vastly different things, and it's really fun to compare and contrast.

All right, let's bring it to the basketball team, the basketball training camp. The 4th day of training camp, 5th day, basically over right now. It's theoretically over. You're playing a game tomorrow.

I told the guys when we started that Technically, our camp is going to go all the way till the Seattle game next week. So it's kind of a 10-day camp where— and I mean, it's really— it's not set in stone, but really it's— I look at the first week or 10 days where you're putting in the foundation of your defensive principles and your practice sessions take on a little more of a load in terms of the—

Defense.

the drill work and the fundamental stuff. And then once we get past that Seattle game next Friday, I think we'll settle into a more normal game day and practice day routine.

By this time last year, you were, you were, had some players you were really talking up that you were really happy with. It was Kevon Looney, as I remember clearly. We'd ask you about some other guys and you'd say, well, by the way, there's Looney, he's really stepping up. Is there a guy, is there a younger player who Who hasn't played significant minutes that you think is kind of popping right now?

Well, it's been a really good group. Our young guys who are camp invites, some of whom will end up in Santa Cruz with our G League team, it's a really good crop. But just from watching for 4 days and eliminating the obvious, you know, Steph, Klay, KD, Draymond all look great, right? Jonas Jerebko.

Yeah.

He's good.

Good.

Really good. He's physical. He can shoot the 3. He can put the ball on the floor. He knows how to play. Quinn Cook, we played a 24-minute scrimmage yesterday. Quinn Cook, I think he had 30 points.

Wow.

I mean, he made every single shot until the final 2 minutes. He finally missed a couple. I mean, I'm series, I think he was maybe 14 for 16 or something. He is coming in with so much confidence. And then what's really fun is watching Damian Jones play with the first group. I'm gonna start him here in the preseason probably for at least several games and give him a chance. So that's kind of what I'm looking for is the youth and the new guys and seeing how they all fit in.

How's Jacob Evans looking so far?

He's looked good. He's solid. He's strong. defensively. You know, he's never gonna jump off the page, but he's gonna do really smart things. He's gonna make the right play. He's not gonna turn the ball over. He's gonna fit in with whoever he's playing with. So, you know, the biggest question for Jakob will be, can he make the shot consistently? And, and we'll see as he goes.

How much do you want a guy just to Just let me see you take it. Because obviously there's been issues with that with this team recently. Do you— or if he's missing, does he not take it? I mean, where is the line in a young player? Let's say right now, just take the shot. I want to see you take the shot.

You definitely want to see that, because if you don't shoot it, this league will expose you quickly. You got guys like Draymond who are going to play 15 feet off of you and talk smack. In practice, right? In practice. You're scared. You're scared. So this league is unforgiving, and I'd much rather see a guy just pretend that he's confident and let that thing fly. Just go and keep shooting and keep shooting until they start going in. If you stop shooting, you're in some trouble.

Do you think there is a mental part— I think we talked about this a little bit, and some of your guys have mentioned it— when you're on a team with Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, There's just— the basketball gets heavier in your hands because you don't want to miss a shot when those guys are on the floor, or 2 of them or one of them. There's an added responsibility, or I guess added fear of missing shots when you're on the floor with those guys.

Could be. I mean, I think there was some of that with Chicago when I played for the Bulls, that, you know, you didn't want to let Michael Jordan down, and you knew you were gonna play in big games, so the shots became bigger shots. Because we're a good team and because we're playing deep into the playoffs, there's more pressure on our guys than there are on, say, a lottery team or whatever. So that could be a factor.

You've mentioned when asked about McCollum, how long can you wait before you start tweaking your rotation or figuring out someone else can take that role? Are you getting to that point here, or is this going to be a little while longer before before it starts to get serious about him missing time?

Honestly, I don't even think about the situation in those terms. You know, we have our first preseason game coming up here Saturday night. We're just going to play. We're going to play with who we've got. We've got Sunday off. We'll practice Monday. We all want Patrick to be here. He's not here, so we play the guys who are here. And I don't know how to answer that question, but there's no doubt that in order to make your mark and get into the rotation, at some point you've got to be out there with the guys.

A football coach would be saying, oh, these young guys, I could see going with them. They might be winning the spot. But Steve Kerr is not a football coach apparently. You like football, but you're not a football coach. One thing I've noticed just from media day, maybe some other conversations, is your guys have kind of come into this— I don't know if serene is the right way, but there certainly is a feeling of not jaggedness. Maybe last season you were looking at China, you're looking, oh man, this is tough to go, you know, the 4 straight years. Now it's 5 straight years to the Finals if you do it, which will be a lot. But I don't sense there is a A feeling of almost like, okay, this weight on their shoulders. Do you see that too? Is that just a natural maturity out of this team, or is it the circumstance?

I think it's, uh, I think it's both. I think some of it is maturity. Uh, I think last year the China trip loomed for us, and I know Shaun Livingston said when we came back and we played opening night, you know, 6 days after we got back from China, Shawn said this feels like game 41, not game 1.

Yep.

This preseason is perfect. We're going to Seattle, we're going to Las Vegas, we're going to San Jose. We're not leaving the Pacific time zone. We're going to fun cities. We're enjoying the process. We're also defending champs, trying to win 3 straight. We're in a great position. You know, I think we have a big edge over teams that haven't won it yet. You can make the argument, the opposite argument, that those teams are hungrier than us, and if we let our guard down, that's the case. But I also believe that once you've got a few rings, you don't have that same pressure that, you know, players on other teams have who have not won a ring, you know, the stigma of, well, yeah, yeah, but, you know, you're a great player, but we don't have that and we should take advantage of that.

I don't want to lead this saying you're directly into the Western Conference Finals last year, but that was an incredible moment. We haven't really talked about just looking back on that 7-game series. You're down, but you lose— was it Game 4 to go down? Whatever game it was to go down. And you're like, okay, we figure something out. Was that part of that, okay, our guys don't have the same kinds of pressures, maybe a team that hasn't won it that would be down right now after, you know, all this discussion about it. Was that a little bit into your thinking at that moment when you were so positive even though you guys were almost ready to go? Right.

It was genuine. We did feel like we figured some things out, and the beauty of the NBA is If you're the favorite, is that somebody's got to beat you 4 times. You know, it's not the NCAA tournament. It's not one bad night and you're out. It's you got to have 4, 4 bad nights or the other team has to have 4 good nights. And so we're always confident until we're out. And I thought last year, midway through that series, you know, the whole thing got turned on its head when Andre got hurt and then it got flipped back the other way when Chris Paul got hurt. But that's all part of it. And so midway through that series, with all the injuries going on, everything else, we finally broke through offensively and we could feel things changing.

And maybe a little pressure going on the team that hadn't won it?

Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. And the home court too, it's always interesting in the playoffs. You know, you always want home court. The playoffs, but there's a fear factor on the home floor for teams as well when you haven't won it. And I've been hearing that sound for literally, you know, this is my 30th year in the NBA, actually 30— yeah, 30th, 31st coming up. And I've heard that sound so many times in playoff games where the home team is just Is struggling to score and the gasp, you know, you miss your 5th straight 3, the gasp, the, uh, the collective groan. And it can— so the, the home court can actually sort of be counterproductive because you feel like you're letting the home fans down. And a veteran team like ours can take advantage of that.

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Uh, you look at the way the league might have changed in the offseason. A certain player ended up in LA. Uh, have you talked to Luke at all about, hey, you know, LeBron's there? Isn't it interesting that you got this team and he's got LeBron and that team is— not asking you for the specifics of a conversation, but does it strike you guys as interesting that you 2 guys are the ones who have these players right now?

We didn't really talk about the fact that it was interesting. It was more because we're such good friends. It was more, you know, let's talk about, you know, how you coach the team in that situation and what the dynamics look like. And, you know, I offered advice and he bounced some things off me and But that happens every year. The fact that we're now rivals, you know, we're now big rivals with each other.

You hate each other now, obviously.

Yeah, we can't stand each other. But no, he's— I'm excited because, I mean, it's gonna be rocking when the Lakers come to town and when we go to Staples. The atmosphere is gonna be electric. And the fact that Lou down there, you know, one of my best friends. We're always able to separate basketball from friendship, and it'll be fun to compete against each other.

You hate this question. I only ask it of you once a year. I try to, but I will preface to say you look great, you sound great. Is there a significant improvement, would you say, in the way you feel lately?

There is, yeah. Thanks for asking. I mean, I even played a little golf this summer.

Amazing.

Yeah.

Amazing.

It had been a couple years since I got out and swung a golf club, and I played a few rounds late in the summer down in San Diego. And so I am doing better. And man, what a long haul. And I work every day. You know, I do a lot of stuff to make sure I'm staying on the improvement curve. You're the same age as me, so way to go, Kerr.

Way to make me feel good. Again, was there a moment that you thought you might not be able to do this anymore? I mean, I know how much you love it, and I, and I've— I believe it made you want to do this more even. But was there a time like, this is not— it's just not going away?

Well, the worst is behind me, so that's— I mean, that That moment would have been a couple of years ago, you know, when I had to sit out in the playoffs. That, you know, that really— that was a brutally difficult time. And I wasn't sure what was going to happen. So I think all of that is behind me and I'm looking at much better days.

Just the idea of you back on the golf course, that must have been— knowing how much you love the game.

Oh, it was so fun. So fun.

Out in the sun, in the air, is not terrible.

No doubt.

I asked Myers what I should ask you. He actually had some good questions, which surprises me, because I don't know what the hell he knows about anything. But he did say this. I was kind of thinking about this myself. I mean, this is your 5th year coaching this team. Are there things that you are very different doing now than you were in the first year, or even that you imagined you would have been like when you started this job? Obviously, you hadn't coached But things seem to come so naturally to you, it's hard to say, okay, Kerr's different now as he was then. But maybe some things that you know that are different now than, than were— you were doing in year 1.

Well, it feels so much more efficient now. You know, our whole operation with, with our assistant coaches, with the players, it just feels like when we come in now We know exactly what we're going to do. We get our work done and we get out of here and, and we're on the right path. And I think 4 years ago, I was doing some things that maybe didn't work that, you know, nothing major, but I would go home and go, man, that was a bad practice, you know? But you learn, you learn about the rhythm of practice. You learn about The communication with the players and when to step in and when to back off, and especially as you get to know players better and better. And so now I've known the core guys here for a long time, and we've had so much experience with the season and, you know, navigating the 82 games and all that. So it just feels so much more natural and efficient. And I rarely go home I mean, we still make mistakes, but it seems a lot cleaner now than it did then.

You still get into guys. I mean, and we saw it during last season when you— I think you thought you had to, right, to wake them up a little bit. Is that the same as it's been from the beginning? Are you about the same kind of dealing with them in the same way?

Yeah, I mean, you are who you are, you know, and My wife has a phrase to describe me. It's actually from a book about Arthur Ashe. And Arthur Ashe's wife used to say of him, beware the fury of a patient man. And so my wife was reading the book and she goes, oh my God, this applies to you too.

That's not bad.

That's not bad. And that's exactly right. I mean, I am exceedingly patient. But you know this, I snap once in a while. I break a clipboard every year and everybody, you know, laughs. And I've had a good laugh with DeMarcus Cousins about my ejection in Sacramento. Was it 2 years ago? I think maybe it was last year.

I don't even remember. I know.

I think it was 2 years ago. They all blend together. 2 years ago. And, you know, I was— I lost it. I lost it that night, screaming profanities, and I got ejected, which was well deserved. And as I, you know, as they— as I was led to the locker room, I made eye contact with DeMarcus, and he had this sly grin on his face, and he just— he kind of waved his hand and mouthed, bye-bye. And we had a good laugh about that one, but That's who I am. I'm gonna be very patient. I'm gonna be very poised, and then every once in a while I'm gonna snap. I just can't help it.

Oh, you bring up— I should ask you about DeMarcus before, but he looks like he's doing a lot more stuff than I thought he would have been. Not trying to get a date on this, not trying to have any expectation on when he's gonna, but is he a little bit ahead of where you guys might have thought he was?

We didn't really have any expectations in terms of You know, a timetable. So I can't say that he's ahead of schedule. He's definitely not behind schedule. The rehab has gone really well. Problem is, with an Achilles, it's a tricky injury to come back from because there's a lot of motion and movement. It's not as simple as a ligament healing in your knee or elbow or something. It's your whole body doing Depends on your Achilles for movement and balance and coordination. And so he's— his Achilles is healed, and now it's about all that other stuff, all the movement. And that's where Rick Celebrini comes into play, our new director of performance here. Rick is great. DeMarcus is working closely with him, but he has taken part the last 2 days in practice, all the non-contact stuff. It's good to get him out there.

So you're installing some things maybe a little with him?

I mean, not yet. Okay, we will, we will. Right now he's just getting acclimated, and, you know, he's, he won't— he's not gonna play anytime soon. I mean, it's— he's got to, he's got to work and get in shape and, and make sure his body is strong enough to handle the grind. The worst thing we can do is bring him back early, and he's nowhere close right now to That doesn't mean he won't be close, you know, a few weeks from now or a couple months from now. We don't know exactly what the date is, but it's going to happen. But the frustrating thing for him is, you know, I told him it's been a long, you know, or it's going to be a long grind. You know, it's 9 months, so be patient. He said, well, it already has been a long grind at this point. I think it was 9 months ago, the injury. So I feel for him. It's a long, long process.

Can you imagine him, can you picture him already in your offense? I've pictured him like, you know, I don't, I love Bogut, I'm not ripping him, but a Bogut who can shoot, but used like that. Bring him up high, have him pass down low, turn around, take the shot, then maybe even float out to the 3-point line. Is that kind of what you're imagining for him?

Yeah, he's a brilliant passer, and you know we've always loved Bigs who can pass, you know, from Bogut to David Lee, David West, Saza, Draymond. So we play through the post quite a bit anyway, and we haven't had a guy as powerful who could score down there. So we're gonna throw him the ball in the block some, but I think his, his most comfortable spot is out at the elbow, like you said. And our offense, really, we run our offense out there anyway. So I envision running a lot of things through him at the elbow where he can pass and step out and shoot a jumper as well.

Your offense will look weird with a low post feature. Your low post player has been Shawn Livingston, by the way, right?

Right.

I mean, the only really guy that you ever work on the low post.

As far as scoring.

Yeah, yeah. And you get Draymond.

Yeah, we use the low post from a passing standpoint. Right, to get our guards open. So we like to throw the ball in there. David West, occasionally we'd go in inside for a hoop, but, um, you know, generally we throw the ball in there in order to generate a shot elsewhere.

Give you more angles.

Now, yeah, I mean, to be able to throw, throw it to, to DeMarcus with the shooting we have, um, and sometimes you need to slow the game down a little bit and get things in control, and you do that by getting Fouled or, you know, getting a layup. And we haven't had that option before.

I always give you the leeway here since you're the ones who started this by bringing out that statement, one of the podcasts in a previous iteration of my show. Anything on the political landscape recently that has come up for you, or do you want to kind of pass on that right now?

I'm going to pass on that right now. Yeah, there's enough commentary going on around the country.

I don't— I can't imagine anything that's really being discussed right now. But yeah, let's pass on that.

I will say one thing. I will say one thing. I encourage everybody out there to register to vote. We had Rock the Vote come in.

They're right at the table next to us right now.

Our players who were not registered registered today. We're having the people in the building, our employees upstairs, they have access to get registered today with the Rock the Boat people. I think the midterm elections have never been more important. And, you know, I just encourage everybody because we are a system of checks and balances and our institutions are really important, but our institutions are held up by us, by our ability to vote. And so—

Thank you.

I just encourage everybody to cast your ballot, whoever you're voting for. Use that ballot. It's going to be important.

I just think the word citizenship has never been more important.

I agree.

You know, in a lot of different ways, by the way.

Yeah.

Like what the informed, you know, what the significance of being a true citizen is all about. And we're seeing tests of it all over the place. But as always, you can add in anything at a later date if you wish. You're the one person I allow this Did that generate some interest? It was a little bit, a little bit. And it was even better that I didn't even know it was coming.

Did you get any hate mail for me?

Oh yeah, I was defending you, Steve Kerr. Unbelievably. I don't ever want to get in that stance again.

So you know who I did meet? This is now going down the political path. I've met some of the Parkland kids who are basically responsible for the March for Our Lives. movement that's going on. And those guys are awesome, and guys and girls. What they're doing is so inspiring. You know, they're really—

They're changing the conversation.

They are. And it's the only way things are going to change. But that's the beauty of our system. You know, the young people will win. The young people have the final say if they get out and vote. And if we want to change things, then that means the young people have to activate. And that's what, that's what a lot of young people are doing. I met Matt Deitch and David Hogg, both from the Parkland school in Florida. And it's just so inspiring what they're doing. They basically, you know, are full-time activists, you know, trying to Trying to get things done in the world of gun safety and gun control measures, and they're, they're no joke, man. These guys are fighters. They're out there every day.

They've been through a lot, there's no question. And I think sometimes maybe you have to go through a lot to really throw yourself back into it. Well, Steve, I will ask you— I've asked you your favorite restaurant before, so we'll do a different one to finish up. Steve Kerr, what's your favorite recent You're a big book reader, I know. And you find anything recently that you really recommend?

I got on a good run this summer and read several books that I really got into. And the one that stands out is Bad Blood. You know the book?

Yeah, I bought it, by the way, on your recommendation. I haven't read it yet.

Yeah.

Is it Theranos?

Yes. Yeah. And it reads like a thriller. Like a novel, but, you know, the story of the Silicon Valley company that created what they thought was going to be a novel way to test your blood without having to draw blood, but just, you know, prick your finger and use a droplet of blood. The story is incredible. It's amazing. But especially living here in the Bay Area, it's kind of fun to read because you recognize some of the names and you get to to know kind of some of the people and places and just an amazing tale that just almost seems like it's not real, but it is.

And also the startup culture, I imagine, is discussed in there, just the go-go mentality.

Yeah, yeah, and you've got all these genius kids coming out of Stanford who are brilliant but maybe not yet ready to manage a bunch of people and manage a company, and it shows you kind of the dichotomy there in certain startups. Some, some.

Not all.

What's your business plan?

What's your business— no, that's a whole other thing. One book you recommended to me, and you have done that before, is Lincoln on the Bardo, which I have to embarrassingly say I couldn't get through. It was voice, voice, voice. I like text, you know, and it was like, it was all— and is it that way through the entire thing?

Yeah, it took a little while to figure out what was going on. It's a little whimsical, but it was, uh, I got into it. Yeah, but I got— like I said, I got on a run, so that might have been one that if I had read during the season, I wouldn't have gotten into.

Um, I'm gonna try getting back into it. Sometimes I can do that. Yeah, but it just was, you know, voice, voice, voice. Voice, voice, voice, voice, like, where am I? What, you know, I do like a little linear sense to it. I am linear.

I'll give you another one that Chris Ballard gave to me called Being Mortal. Atul Gawande wrote it. He's, I think, a surgeon, but a writer, surgeon turned writer, and a beautiful book. It's nonfiction, really well done. It's about aging and about how we care for the elderly in this country. And it's not— it doesn't read like a textbook. It doesn't sound like something that, oh yeah, I got to read that. But it's beautifully done, and I really enjoyed it.

All right, Steve, taking plenty of your time. Always appreciate talking to you. And you got a long season ahead of you.

I sure hope so.

Brace for it. I know I am. All right, thank you, everybody. That's Steve Kerr. And that's the show for today.