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Anthony Slater: Steve Kerr will not coach the Warriors tonight in Utah. He is in Serbia for Dejan Milojevic’s services. Kenny Atkinson will be the acting head coach. Also in Serbia for the service: Mike Dunleavy, Chris DeMarco, Ron Adams, Zaza Pachulia, Rick Celebrini.
So, on Broadway in downtown Salt Lake City, in front of Valter’s Osteria, the Warriors’ favorite Italian restaurant in Utah, beneath the dark sky last Tuesday, as the red lights of the fire trucks and police cars colored the scene with the hue of danger, Adams hugged Kerr as he cried. “I lean on Ron Adams for so much,” Kerr said of his assistant coach on Monday after the Warriors’ practice, wearing a black shirt with BRATE in white letters across the chest. It means “brother” in Serbian, and it’s what Deki called everyone. “Ron has been a mentor for me, obviously an amazing coach for all of our players and for our coaches. I lean on him for wisdom and I asked him a couple of days ago, I said, ‘How do we go on from here? What do we do?'”
Shayna Rubin: Steve Kerr says he went to Ron Adams for advice on how to emotionally move on after the trauma. He told Steve to ask himself what Deki would say: “I literally could picture Deki smiling and laughing and saying ‘You motherfuckers need to go and win.’”
“He's completely unselfish,” Adams said. “He doesn't go out feeling he has to score a bunch of points, but he's capable. Now we have a four or five-man who is a point guard. That strength, which he had at an early age, has only gotten better. But his shooting the ball, I'd say his offense in general has really come along, but especially shooting 3-point shot."
Golden State assistant coach Ron Adams is the winner of this year’s Tex Winter Assistant Coach Lifetime Impact Award, presented by the National Basketball Coaches Association.
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Ron Adams will on Tuesday receive the Tex Winter Assistant Coach Lifetime Impact Award, presented by the National Basketball Coaches Association. “Ron Adams embodies everything that makes a great coach,” Rick Carlisle, Pacers coach and president of the NBCA, said in a statement. “He is passionate about teaching, has a great basketball IQ, a tireless work ethic, fierce loyalty and a deep love for the game.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr credits Adams for much of the success the team has enjoyed. “He has been amazing from helping shape our defensive identity to giving me ‘head coaching advice,’” Kerr texted to NBC Sports Bay Area on Monday night. “Most of all, he’s a wonderful human being who I love seeing and talking with every day.”
Monte Poole: Several people have asked about the future of veteran Warriors asst coach Ron Adams. 1-Still in health/safety protocols but feels OK 2- Steve Kerr wants him back 3-Adams, 74, likely will return for his 9th season
Wes Goldberg: Steve Kerr on Ron Adams, who is now in more of a consultant role: "I think Ron is more important for *me* this year than ever. ... As I navigate how to coach this team."
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“Ron Adams is our resident – is oenophile correct?”Kerr asked on this week’s “Hoops, Adjacent” podcast. “In fact, when I interviewed Ron to come aboard with the Warriors in 2014, my assistant Nick U’Ren and I took Ron out to dinner to interview him. We ordered a bottle of wine. It was an Italian restaurant. They didn’t have any California Pinots, which is what we were looking for. And the waiter said, ‘You know, if you want, I’ll bring you kind of the Italian version of a Pinot.’ We said great. “So he brings back the wine, he opens it up, he gives Ron the taste – you know, how you swish it around (in your mouth)? Well, Ron became the first person I’ve ever been to dinner with who sent the wine back. On a job interview!”
Overall, Adams is feeling mighty positive about this Warriors squad in the wake of a 15-50 season (presuming the Warriors will not be asked to participate in the restart later in the summer). And again, this is all relative, because Adams never got too giddy about things even when the Warriors were clearly the best team in the league a few years back.
“It was difficult to watch, on the one hand,” Adams said specifically of this season’s defensive performance. “But going into the season, I knew there were pretty lofty expectations but it was pretty apparent to me this was going to be a season that tested all of us. … Having said that, I was really proud of this team from multiple standpoints. The first thing is I thought they were very competitive.
"We had some stinker games, but for the most part, regardless of who we were playing, regardless of the number of people we had active that night, the guys went out, they competed, they played pretty well together, they tried to play defense and it was pretty gratifying to see. I would say also that, to a man, they kept their enthusiasm during the course of the year. Especially with the last group that we ended up with, really a good group of guys, they kept their enthusiasm, they kept their work ethic. It’s not easy when you’re winning 15 games to come to work bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. And I would say that for the most part these guys did that every day.
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