Between his playing and coaching careers, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has nine NBA championship rings. According to one of his players, that might be it for the future Hall of Famer.
“I hope he’s our coach next season,” Warriors veteran Draymond Green said on the Monday, April 20 episode of his podcast, “The Draymond Green Show.” “You want my opinion? I think not. Just because it feels like that. It felt like that was it.”
Green, 36, added, “I’ve never been so uncertain since earlier in my career in what happens next. But I’m truly at a loss now because you don’t know what direction will be next. … I also hope I’m on this team next season. We also don’t know that. Man, if it was [the end], what a run.”
Kerr, 60, just finished his 12th season as Warriors head coach as Golden State missed the playoffs for the second time in three years. Though he has won four championships during his tenure, the team’s stars are aging and 12 years is already far longer than most NBA coaches last. Green has been on the roster since before Kerr even took the job.
When the Warriors were officially eliminated during the NBA’s play-in tournament on Friday, April 17, microphones caught a moment on the sidelines between Kerr, Green and Stephen Curry.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but I love you guys to death,” Kerr told them. “Thank you.”
After the game, Kerr told reporters he would take the next couple weeks to decide on his future. He told ESPN on Monday that the odds of him returning to the Warriors are 50-50. His contract expires during the coming offseason.
“I still love coaching, but I get it,” Kerr said on Friday. “These jobs all have an expiration date. There is a run that happens, and when the run ends, sometimes it’s time for new blood and new ideas.”
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If Kerr does decide to return, reports indicate the Golden State front office will want a multi-year commitment from him. ESPN’s NBA insiders Ramona Shelburne and Anthony Slater reported that team owner Joe Lacob will want “to hear Kerr express a hunger to continue executing the nitty-gritty details of the daily job, not a reluctant acceptance that he should continue coaching purely out of loyalty to Green and Curry and the sentimentality of riding out this era.”
A multi-year deal, they explained, would avoid a “Last Dance” type of farewell tour “that would feel more about emotion and nostalgia than wins.”
