Steve Kerr is one of the most interesting case studies in all of coaching right now. It’s fitting he spent his formative years as a professional basketball player playing under Phil Jackson, who led his own super-team to multiple titles amid Well, yeah, anyone can win with that team claims despite the fact that his predecessor (Doug Collins, in Jackson’s case) did not do what Jackson did with largely the same players.
Yes, Kerr takes the floor with a tremendous advantage over his 29 rivals every time he steps on the floor. He has Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, and everyone else does not. Kerr is the first person to admit that. But this was not a championship team when Kerr took the job ahead of the 2014-15 season.
The same, Kevin Durant-less, players that were bounced in the first round of the 2014 NBA playoffs went 67-15 and trotted to the 2015 NBA title. The same Steph Curry that finished a distant sixth in the 2014 MVP voting was the runaway winner in 2015.
Clearly, there’s something to the way Kerr coaches his team. And I think that something is humility. You can see it in this supercut below, put together by an NBA Reddit user, where Kerr clearly understands that to over-coach his players is to ruin them. Instead, he encourages, he nudges and he picks his spots.
Yes, coaching Draymond Green is infinitely different than coaching a 15-year-old wide receiver or a 20-year-old linebacker, but I think all coaches can glean something from the way Kerr goes about his uniquely challenging job.
Really cool video from @NBA_Reddit cutting up a bunch of Kerr sideline sound. Dude gets cute with the rotations sometimes, but he’s a damn good coach (and an all-around great guy). pic.twitter.com/mV8fXKTiVo
— Dieter Kurtenbach (@dkurtenbach) May 7, 2018
