He's back: Steve Kerr agrees to 2-year deal to keep coaching Warriors
SAN FRANCISCO Steve Kerr has reached a decision about his future after more than three weeks of deliberation.
He will remain the Golden State Warriors’ coach after agreeing to a new two-year contract on Saturday, a league source confirmed to the Bay Area News Group. Shams Charania of ESPN reported that the deal will keep Kerr as the NBA’s highest-paid coach, although the terms are not yet known.
Kerr coached all of last season on an expiring contract as the Warriors went 37-45 and suffered through a brutal spell of injuries to key players.
At his exit interview in Phoenix last month after the Warriors lost to the Suns in a play-in game, Kerr said he wanted to meet with team owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy before making a decision about whether or not to walk away from coaching Steph Curry and the Warriors.
Kerr ultimately decided to return for another season with Curry and Draymond Green, but there was uncertainty for more than three weeks.
Kerr had been meeting with media agents, Front Office Sports reported the week after the season ended, signaling a sign that the coach might return to broadcasting.
ESPN had reported that the Warriors’ upper management wanted Kerr to modernize his offense, which some saw as too reliant on 3-point variance, and shake up his coaching staff.
Another area of friction was Kerr’s willingness to weigh in on social issues – often on matters of gun violence – as noted by ESPN’s Marc J. Spears.
The Warriors, according to Yahoo’s Kevin O’Connor, began looking into current Florida coach Todd Golden, a Saint Mary’s alum and former USF coach, as a potential replacement if the 60-year-old Kerr did not return.
Golden responded to the speculation by telling reporters that “I’m definitely planning on coaching the Gators” next season.
All of that speculation was for naught.
Kerr met with Lacob and Dunleavy last week, and then convened again earlier this week before agreeing to a new deal, fending off a reported offer from ESPN to rejoin the broadcasting booth.
In a dozen years on the job, Kerr has gone 604-353, a run that in which he has won four titles, reached two additional NBA Finals and passed Al Attles for the franchise coaching wins record. He is 104-48 in the playoffs.
Kerr earned the 2015-16 NBA Coach of the Year award after guiding the Warriors to an NBA-record 73-9 mark during the regular season.
The Warriors have slipped since the epic highs of winning three titles in four years from 2015-18, but they captured one more championship under Kerr in 2022.
Prior to coaching the Warriors, Kerr enjoyed a 15-year NBA playing career from 1988 until 2003. He won five titles – three with the Chicago Bulls and two with the San Antonio Spurs – and retired with the NBA record for career 3-point accuracy at 45.4%, a record he still owns.
After his playing days were over, Kerr worked as a basketball analyst for TNT, then was an executive with the Suns from 2007-10. Phoenix reached the Western Conference finals in his final year as general manager.
Kerr then transitioned back into broadcasting with TNT before replacing Mark Jackson with the Warriors in 2014, his first-ever professional coaching job. Golden State won the NBA Finals over Cleveland in his first year and reached the Finals in each of his first five seasons.
With his decision made, Kerr will have a busy summer.
The NBA draft lottery was set for Sunday and the draft is June 23. Free agency is expected to begin June 30, and Summer League then starts in early July.
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