Steve Kerr has eight NBA championship rings -- five as a player and three as a coach -- but that success isn’t necessarily the first thing that comes to mind.
Michael Jordan infamously punched Kerr in the face during a 1995 practice when the two were teammates on the Chicago Bulls. Jordan gave Kerr a black eye, and their fight will be discussed during Sunday’s episodes of “The Last Dance,” ESPN’s documentary on Jordan and the 1997-98 Bulls. Kerr might wince during the segment.
Not because of lingering animosity, mind you. Kerr admitted he’s “self-conscious” about the punch taking on a life of its own, but he said Jordan cleared the air with him long ago.
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"He called me later that day and apologized," the Warriors coach recently told ESPN's Nick Friedell. "In a strange way, it was almost a necessary step in our relationship, in a weird way. And from then on, I think he understood me a lot better and vice versa. And we got along much better and competed together and I think he trusted me more. So it was actually sort of, in the end, it was all good. But we've never talked about it since. To be honest, I don't ever think about it, but I get asked about it because it's a unique [situation]."
[RUNNIN' PLAYS PODCAST: Listen to the latest episode]
There might not be a punch discussed more in NBA history than Jordan’s, but Kerr said fights in practice weren’t exactly uncommon during his playing career. He told ESPN’s “The Jump” there were four practice fights on every single team he was on, though most “remained under wraps.”
"[It's] very, very strange to know everybody's hearing this story and talking about it and then I'm going to be on camera talking about it," Kerr told Friedell. "Michael is. And people are going to be examining this whole thing."
Golden State Warriors
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Kerr’s fight with Jordan clearly has a much more prominent place in NBA lore than it does in his own mind.
The disparity might even be larger after Sunday’s episodes of “The Last Dance” air.