Earlier than he signed a two-year extension with the Golden State Warriors, Steve Kerr significantly thought of a really completely different future. In line with L’Equipe, the four-time NBA champion coach explored the potential of in the future 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 the town. Kahn stated he informed Kerr the job could be there for him “if he wished to make the leap” after his NBA profession ended.
Kerr in the end 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 chance carried actual weight as a result of Kerr’s future had already develop into a significant matter in Golden State. He had informed ESPN that he was 95 percent certain the 2025-26 season would be his last 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 troublesome season for Golden State. The Warriors completed 37-45, landed the No. 10 seed within the West and had been eradicated after the play-in spherical, their fourth missed playoff look since 2020.
Kerr had additionally revealed that persistent again ache had worn him down for years, and that he had begun a remedy and journaling routine over the offseason to take care of each bodily and emotional stress. Nonetheless, when the season ended, he informed his employees, “I’m not leaving,” after the team’s play-in win over the Clippers.
His choice to stay with the Warriors retains one of many NBA’s defining teaching eras alive for no less than one other season. Kerr entered that summer season 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 in the future bringing that have to Europe.
