BERKELEY, Calif.
On a long drive through rush-hour traffic Friday, I was listening to San Francisco’s sports radio giant KNBR. The guest was football Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott, who was ostensibly on air to chat about the Super Bowl and the deflated footballs scandal.
Instead, after a brief preamble about football, Lott talked only about the Golden State Warriors. He talked about “Steve.”
Not once in the nine-minute conversation did the KNBR host or Lott say “Steve Kerr.” Just Steve.
This has become the City of Steve.
A day before Reggie Jackson and Lute Olson showed up at Oracle Arena to watch Klay Thompson score 52 points against Sacramento, Kerr received one of the best compliments of his basketball career.
“This is the best group of people I have ever been around,” said Jerry West, a Golden State executive board member. “And that’s saying a lot.”
West has been in the NBA since 1960. Kerr and his culture, which includes ex-UA players Luke Walton, Bruce Fraser and Andre Iguodala, has impressed West mightily.
The Warriors have discovered what Tucsonans first learned in 1984: Kerr attracts good people and good people are attracted to Kerr.
Earlier in the week, ESPN’s Hannah Storm, wife of Sabino High grad Dan Hicks — a Kerr UA contemporary in the 1980s – showed up at Oracle Arena to film a free-throw shooting “contest” between Kerr and Warriors All-Star Stephen Curry.
It was hilarious. It was the self-deprecating Kerr at his best.
Kerr shot 86.4 percent from the foul line in his NBA days; Curry is shooting 89.8 percent in six years in the league. You could see that the bond and respect between the two is unbreakable.
After Thompson scored 52 points on Friday, Kerr abbreviated his post-game press session to 4 minutes 45 seconds. He said Thompson, not the coach, deserved the spotlight. And, typically, Kerr said that Thompson’s career night had nothing to do with the coach’s strategy.
“We had two plays,” said Kerr, “get the ball to Klay, and Klay, get the ball.”
The Warriors are an NBA-best 35-6 and it’s not because Kerr is unflappable or because he leads the league in fun. He knows when to be serious.
Incredibly, Kerr is tied for the lead among NBA coaches with six technical fouls.
He not only has a touch, he has a bite, too.
