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Back in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Brown had earned the trust of another small point guard in Steph Curry during those Warriors years when he played a pivotal part in three of their titles, Kerr and the rest of the lot were celebrating along with him. “Just thrilled for him,” Kerr said via text message. “He’s a wonderful person.”
"Also, that would require LeBron to play for $3 million. And I don't want to spend his money. If he wants to play for $3 million, he can do it. But until I hear from Rich Paul that LeBron is ready to play for $3 million, I'm not going to believe it. "I'd watch Golden State. He played with Steph Curry and Steve Kerr on the Olympics. You know he's close with Draymond Green. I mean, so I still think it's Lakers. I say 51% Lakers, and then we'll see," he added.
Staying with the Lakers is widely believed to be his preferred choice because he is so entrenched in Los Angeles now after eight seasons with the purple and gold. Yet league sources maintain that Golden State remains legitimately interested in adding LeBron to their Stephen Curry/Jimmy Butler/Draymond Green core coached by Steve Kerr ... with the pitch presumed to include the idea that LeBron could commute from Los Angeles to some TBD degree without having to move his family.
Brown has coached some of the league’s biggest stars, including LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. He coached under some of the most venerated coaches, including Popovich and Steve Kerr. But now, for the first time in his career, the Larry O’Brien Trophy is within his grasp as the head of a locker room. Brown points to his time under Popovich as one of the biggest reasons he has arrived at this moment. “It was huge,” Brown said. “Pop — I talk about MSG being iconic, New York City being iconic — Pop is iconic, especially here in San Antonio. When you talk about the game of basketball, he’s iconic to everybody that enjoys the game of basketball.”
This year, only one four-man unit crossed the 900-minute mark. (Lineups featuring Robinson, Anunoby, Bridges and Brunson were a plus-19.6 points per 100 possessions, thanks in large part to Robinson's offensive rebounds and "sprays," Brown's term for getting in the paint and kicking out to shooters. "In terms of the minutes, it's a philosophy I had," Brown said ahead of Monday's Game 2. "One of the many things I learned from Pop and Steve [Kerr]. Steve was really good at trying to play a lot of different guys. Not only that, a guy that hadn't been in the rotation for a while, one game [a coach] might throw him out there as a starter. That kept guys engaged or on their toes."
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“You know, Steve Kerr, Gregg Popovich — they were guys that went deep into their bench, and they both always used to say, ‘It's not about now, it's about the postseason,’” Brown said after Game 3. “You know, you keep guys engaged by doing that, and you do develop not just the bench, but the team as well, because guys get used to playing with other guys, just in case someone goes down.”
"Let's talk a little (Michael Jordan), the coming back from retirement and then dropping 55 at the Garden. Did he tell you guys like there's nothing you can do? What was the trash talk on that day?" Derek Harper: "Michelle, they switched me off of my guy, BJ (Armstrong), Steve Kerr. They switched me onto Mike. And I can't make this up. His exact words were, Harper, couple of things. You're pretty good defensively. But it's too late. I'm already hot. So don't worry about it. You're not going to stop me not today. Those were his words. And there were times you couldn't stop Mike. There were times where you couldn't stop him. You can make it difficult, but greatness, you got to show a lot of different looks in order to slow it down."
Law Murray: All six coaches of the year between 2018 and 2023 have been fired at least once after winning the award (including Mike Brown) Many of you wanted Kenny fired (last year's winner) The five non-Steve Kerr champion coaches from 2016 to 2023 have all been fired So yeah
A nine-time NBA champion in the French capital? For a few weeks, Paris believed it. As confirmed to L'Équipe , Steve Kerr, the coach with five championship rings as a player (from 1996 to 1998 with Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls, in 1999 and in 2003 with the San Antonio Spurs), then four as coach of Golden State (2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022), considered the prospect. Even though the hypothesis never turned into formal negotiation, with the Beirut native ultimately signing a two-year extension with the Warriors, the mere idea of imagining such a strong personality in the world of basketball, still active in the NBA, a key piece in one of its dynasties, is dizzying.
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“Steve contacted me during the second week of the Olympics, saying that he and his wife had spent a whole day walking around Paris, and that they couldn’t stop thinking how cool it would be for them to live in that city, and for him to perhaps continue his coaching career there once he left the NBA,” recounts the Portland native, co-founder of the Parisian club in 2018. “ Later that same week, we met at his hotel and I told him that the job on the bench for Paris Basketball would be there for him, if he wanted to take the plunge.”
Kahn and Kerr have known each other for nearly twenty years. But Kahn feels close to him for another reason. For years, Kerr's voice echoed in his home every day when his son, a die-hard NBA 2K fan, played the game—Kerr and Marv Albert were the official voice actors. Kahn may still have a chance to make the leap from video games to real life. As the Warriors' coach confirmed, " It could still happen in the future."
While the Warriors were careening about the corridors of mediocrity last season, coach Steve Kerr saw disappointment beneath the mounting injuries, the torrent of turnovers and mindless deviations from the game plan, all of which torched hope. Nothing bruised Kerr’s psyche more than what he saw in the mirror. Himself. A veteran coach, lavishly decorated, operating below his standard. Scouts around the league noticed it, and so did several internal observers. So, too, did Kerr. “I didn’t have a great year,” he conceded to NBC Sports Bay Area the other day on a "Dubs Talk" podcast interview. “I think coaches are similar to players. You have years that are better than others, you have years that are worse than others.”
Kerr at one point vowed not to use the “t” word. He was desperate, hoping a little reverse psychology would slow the trend as it did once before. “In the ’22 playoffs against Memphis, we were turning it over left and right,” Kerr recalled. “It was a comedy of errors – only it wasn't that funny. We almost lost the series. But every single day I was talking about the turnovers, turnovers – before every game – it didn't work. And the next series against Dallas, my staff told me just don't even say anything. So, we didn't mention one word about the turnovers. And we hardly turned it over. We were much better, so we were just trying that format again. “Unfortunately, it didn't work as well this time.”