Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has won the NBA Coach of the Year award, according to ESPN’s Marc Stein. The Warriors were 73-9 this season, though they spent about half of the year under the tutelage of assistant coach Luke Walton as Kerr recovered from offseason back surgery.
ESPN sources say that Golden State's Steve Kerr has won the NBA Coach of the Year award for the 2015-16 season.
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) April 26, 2016
The vote was mostly expected as the Warriors broke the single-season wins record, immediately after winning 67 games last year en route to the championship.
Many other coaches – Gregg Popovich, Terry Stotts, Steve Clifford, and Brad Stevens to name a few – deserved consideration for the award but in the end, the lure of 73 wins was too much to pass for voters.
Kerr arguably deserved the award last season when he took the Warriors from mediocre playoff team to title-winner. Giving him the award in a year where he did not coach every game may show voters in essence awarding him for the past two seasons.
Personally, I am all in favor of that. I believe Kerr deserved the award over the other candidates due to his tremendous work over his short tenure as Warriors head coach and 73 wins should always be awarded, even if he was not always the coach on the sidelines.
Meanwhile, the Warriors will continue to focus on the playoffs, one win away from getting to the second round, albeit with concerns about the health of their next award-winner, Steph Curry.
UPDATE:
Kerr has officially been named the 2015-16 NBA Coach of the Year. Following is an official NBA Press release.
The Golden State Warriors’ Steve Kerr, whose team won an NBA-record 73 games, is the recipient of the Red Auerbach Trophy as the 2015-16 NBA Coach of the Year, the NBA announced today. He becomes the Warriors’ first winner since Don Nelson in the 1991-92 season.
Kerr, in his second season as Golden State head coach, received 64 first-place votes and 381 total points from a panel of 130 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. The Portland Trail Blazers’ Terry Stotts, who guided his team to the playoffs with four new starters, finished second with 37 first-place votes and 335 total points. Three-time winner Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs was third with 10 first-place votes and 166 total points. Coaches were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote.
