Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is returning for no less than yet one more season.
In a candid conversation with ESPN’s Wright Thompson on the eve of the play-in event, Kerr admitted he was 95 % sure his 12-year run in Golden State would finish when the season closed. Win or lose, he deliberate to stroll away.
The Warriors completed 37-45 and earned the No. 10 seed within the West. They beat the Clippers in the first play-in game with a livid comeback led by Al Horford’s threes and Stephen Curry’s clutch play, then were eliminated by the Phoenix Suns. It was the fourth time since 2020 they missed the playoffs.
Kerr had first floated retirement final June after the 2025 second-round exit. He advised Thompson over lunch in San Francisco that he and his spouse Margot had mentioned it for months. With Curry and Draymond Inexperienced nearing the tip of their primes, he felt the franchise wanted a clear begin. Persistent again ache, which he known as his “deep, darkish secret,” had worn him down for a decade.
This offseason he started a remedy program rooted within the work of Dr. John Sarno and psychotherapist Nicole Sachs. Each morning he journaled for 20 minutes about buried trauma — together with the 1984 assassination of his father, Malcolm Kerr, in Beirut — then deleted the entry and meditated. The observe eased the vise-like strain behind his eyes that had plagued him since his first NBA Finals as coach in 2015.
The 2025-26 season examined him instantly. The schedule opened with 13 street video games within the first 17, together with brutal back-to-backs. Jimmy Butler tore his ACL in January. Curry missed 21 video games with a knee damage. Jonathan Kuminga was traded to Atlanta in February. By means of all of it Kerr saved the locker room collectively, even writing a heartfelt letter to Inexperienced urging him to adapt his sport because the emotional and defensive anchor fairly than forcing offense.
But the outdated pull by no means left. After the Clippers play-in win in Los Angeles, Kerr sat within the coaches’ room, cracked a Corona, and quietly advised his employees: “I’m not leaving.”
He met proprietor Joe Lacob and normal supervisor Mike Dunleavy within the days after the season. They spoke brazenly about honoring the dynasty’s previous whereas getting ready for its subsequent chapter. Kerr recommitted. He advised Thompson he needs the whistle, not a suit-and-tie front-office function. The identical man who as soon as described the Warriors as a “fading dynasty” now sees magnificence in a single last aggressive stand.
At 37, Curry stays the engine. Inexperienced, 35, nonetheless units the defensive tone. The younger items — Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, Gui Santos — confirmed promise. Kerr believes the group can nonetheless ship “significant basketball,” the sensation he and his gamers chase greater than one other ring.
For Kerr, the choice additionally closes a private circle. Teaching unlocked his finest self: extra compassionate, extra current, higher in a position to carry the load of his father’s dying and his personal bodily ache. Strolling away risked shedding that day by day objective. Staying retains the household — each blood and basketball — intact a bit of longer.
The Warriors will enter 2026-27 with continuity as a substitute of upheaval. Kerr’s return will not be about chasing one final title. It’s about refusing to let the sensation slip away with out one last battle.
