Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has learned from the best during his time in the NBA. Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich are 2 coaches that have made an impact in his career for one reason or another. Most notably, they both got him to the promise land and helped him achieve the ultimate success in the NBA, winning an NBA title. Kerr not only won a title, he won 5 NBA championships so he knows how to win and learned from the best.
While he learns from the best, he also picks up their habits. Case in point, Kerr took a page out of Popovich’s book and rested some of his top players recently. With that resting, there were some fans who were exactly too happy about it. Especially the ones who drove an abundance of miles to see Kerr’s Western Conference leading Warriors take on the Denver Nuggets.
Following from the Associated Press via ESPN.
“There’s two really good sides to the story,” Kerr said. “Nobody’s wrong here. … I can’t argue with them.”
One of the emails Kerr received was from a family that drove from South Dakota to the Mile High City with high hopes of seeing All-Stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson lead the Western Conference’s top team. Instead, those two rested along with center Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala.
“I heard from some fans. I received a few emails, stories about driving in from a long distance off and spending a lot of money on tickets,” Kerr said. “I have great sympathy for those people. I really do. It’s a tricky one. It’s something that I think Adam Silver is trying to address through the scheduling shuffling that he’s talking about.
“It’s real important, because our fans deserve to see the best product out there. If somebody spends a lot of money, they deserve to see the best players, the guy that they came to see. On the other hand, as coaches we have to do what’s best to prepare our teams for a really long year.”
Kerr’s gesture to the fans was a great move. It’s not his fault that the players are in need of a rest, if anything it’s the long grind of an NBA season that commands such a move. With the long NBA season, comes injuries along with the wear and tear it takes on your body. I’m in the same mindset as many others are with the NBA being way too long at 82 games and should definitely be shortened but still keeping the games at a competitive level.
Kerr not only does well by the fans but he also makes an impact on his players.
Following is an Andrew Bogut quote, also from the AP story.
“He’s great. He’s very engaging. He’s a normal guy,” Bogut said of Kerr’s gesture. “We’re definitely not used to that in a head coach.”
