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Draymond Green: "For the first time in my career, Coach (Steve) Kerr told me towards the end of last year, he pulled me to the side, he's like, Draymond, I want you shooting the three. And I was like, oh shit. Like it was like a, it was like a out of body out of body experience, because I had never really heard him like confidently look me in my eyes and say to me like, yo, I want you shooting the basketball. Even when I was shooting the ball great, it was just something that I had never heard. And so when he told me, like the confidence level raised immediately, like, oh man, like Coach want me to shoot."
Steve Kerr is asking Draymond Green for a favor the Warriors star once requested from him: patience. Green thanked Kerr during their postseason exit meeting for remaining patient with him through years of emotional swings, confrontations and suspensions. With Golden State entering a transition season, the coach now wants that patience returned. “He’s going to have to adapt a little bit, and it’s probably going to be a little frustrating at times,” Kerr said on the “Tom Tolbert Show.” He added that he would need Green’s patience.
If there is a chance, Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors would love to have Devin Booker join their side. According to seasoned Warriors and Bay Area reporter Tim Kawakami, the Dubs are ready to surrender tons of assets that would let them have the Phoenix Suns star. “I think the Warriors like him too much, if you ask me. But they love him. Steve loves him. Booker loved playing for Steve," Kawakami claimed. "I know the Warriors would be first in line saying, ‘We got three first-round picks we can give you.’”
Kerr witnessed that passion firsthand. He has long praised Durant for his preparation through the day-to-day grind of an NBA season. With Team USA, he saw something else. He saw how much Durant loves representing the red, white and blue. “He also loves FIBA,” Kerr said. “He loves the experience of being on a team, with all these guys who he is normally competing against. I think he likes the travel. I think he likes eliminating the NBA bulls— that you have to go through for eight months, and it becomes the most pure sporting experience of a player’s life at that level. Kevin, at his core, he loves basketball as much as anybody I’ve ever been around.”
ClutchPoints: “To be honest not really, but I know coach Spo’s story… I know him and Steve Kerr worked together with Team USA and Steve had nothing but great things to say… I know it’s a demanding atmosphere and that’s what attracted me.” Klay Thompson on his relationship with Erik Spoelstra before joining the Heat (via @ZachWeinberger)
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Steele was once a focal point of ESPN’s NBA coverage, even hosting Countdown for several seasons for the network. Since leaving ESPN in 2023, however, Steele has aligned less with the NBA as she leans more into conservative commentary. And during a recent appearance on Dave Rubin’s The Rubin Report, Steele said she didn’t watch an NBA game this past season until the playoffs, claiming her years of getting a behind-the-scenes view of the league made her dislike it even more. “Just knowing that so many of them are full of sh*t with what they say versus what they do. And seeing the passive aggressiveness from some of these head coaches, whether it’s Steve Kerr or Doc Rivers — these people that I used to call a friend, especially Doc,” Steele said.
D'Antoni on the James Harden and Chris Paul Rockets: "We thought we were the best team in the league by far that year for sure. And we had Golden State on the ropes, with their Big 3 -- Big 4, actually, they'll probably have four Hall-of-Fame guys going in. They were good, and Steve Kerr does a great job. We had 'em, you know? We had 'em, and just, Chris [Paul] got hurt, and that's just the way it goes. And then we missed 27 3s in a row, which didn't help. Analytically, I know that's not good! I knew it wasn't when we were doing it, but just a great team."
Was it a relief to make it to the Hall of Fame? Doc Rivers: I believed that I was going to get in at some point. But it was a relief that I was in. I wanted to get in while I was still coaching, and I achieved that. I championed that. I really fought early on for Pop [Gregg Popovich]. I’ve always got something I’m fighting for. I just felt like Steve Kerr, myself, Spo [Erik Spoelstra, should be Hall of Famers]. College coaches get to coach and be [named] “Hall of Fame coach.” But [active] NBA coaches rarely get that. I really believe it would have saved some of these guys’ jobs, like George Karl. … His career should have been in the Hall. Then he gets in after he leaves [coaching]. But would he still have been coaching if he was “Hall of Fame coach George Karl?” So, it’s a big thing for me, and I’m still pushing to get Rick Carlisle in now. It’s so funny. I’m in, but now I’m still working for NBA coaches.
From there, Nelson, who added general manager to his title the following season with Milwaukee, used an unorthodox coaching style that became known as "Nellie Ball" to put together a Hall of Fame résumé during his 31 seasons. Nellie Ball proved to be ahead of its time, utilizing smaller, more athletic players to fuel a fast-paced offense that prioritized creating mismatches through speed. It was a philosophy that had been adopted across the league long after he retired. "Don Nelson was a true innovator whose influence on the game of basketball is still felt today," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said in a statement Sunday. "He consistently challenged conventional thinking, experimented with different lineups and styles of play and saw possibilities in the game that others often did not. So much of what is now commonplace in the modern NBA can be traced back to the way Nellie approached the game."
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The Golden State Warriors’ core of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and head coach Steve Kerr have seen the pinnacles of success in the NBA over the past decade. The trio have won four championships with a various cast of characters and made history in the process but many believe that Golden State’s viability as a contender is in question following a quiet offseason and the inability to pair another young all-star level talent around Curry. Many wonder what the future for the Warriors will be but Danny Emerman of the San Francisco Standard says that Curry and Green have made it through the reality that the y might not be championship contenders with their current roster.
Emerman joined the Celtics Daily podcast to speak about this dynamic. “Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Steve Kerr, they all know the deal here. They know that they’re not legitimate title contenders but it’s not that they’re okay with that. It’s just that they’re faced with that reality. What they’re prioritizing is going out together, going out with dignity, playing hard and improving every day as much as they can. They’ve all been vocal about not wanting to mortgage the future. He added, “That’s a concept that we can unpack a little bit because I don’t think they might have the same definition as some other people in the organization or outside the organization. They want to play as hard as they can and win as many games as they can for sure. They want to compete and they want to play the right way while knowing that a championship is probably unrealistic to strive for.”
NBABase: Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Steve Kerr know the Warriors are no longer title contenders, but their priority is "going out together with dignity," per @DannyEmerman "A championship is probably unrealistic to strive for at this point." (Via @CelticsCLNS)
That has forced the Warriors to find advantages in new places. “Chase South” is one of them. “If you come in here and you haven’t seen it before, you’ll go, ‘Wow, are we at the Chase Center?’” Warriors assistant general manager Larry Harris said. Inside the Las Vegas Basketball Center, pictures of Curry, Draymond Green, Steve Kerr and other current and former team staffers, players and coaches adorn the walls. Warriors and Golden State Valkyries banners hang from the ceiling. Two of the actual courts the Warriors played on over the last few seasons make up part of the Las Vegas facility’s five full-sized courts. A weight room sits in the back of the building. Longtime Warriors public relations maestro Raymond Ridder and his staff have a dedicated workspace. So does the team chef, who puts together made-to-order meals while players get their work in on the courts nearby.