Steve Kerr is a winner.
The Golden State Warriors didn’t need to become the fourth franchise in NBA history to advance to six NBA Finals in an eight-year span, as they did Thursday night by eliminating Dallas from the Western Conference finals, for this to be true.
And it’s a fact that Chicago Bulls fans know well from Kerr’s days hitting game-winning shots in the 1997 Finals during the second three-peat. Which just so happens to be the last time a franchise advanced to six Finals in an eight-year span.
“I think the common denominator is just talented players who are fierce competitors,” Kerr said late Thursday in San Francisco during his postgame news conference. “Whether you talk about Michael (Jordan) and Scottie (Pippen), Steph (Curry), Draymond (Green), Klay (Thompson), it takes a special kind of athlete to have both dynamics.
“The skill and the athleticism and all that, but to also be just incredibly competitive and to want to win so badly. It's the only way you can have a run like that because you get exhausted. You get tired. You get frustrated.
“If you don't have that type of competitive desire and that type of skill combined, it's just not going to happen six times out of eight years.”
Kerr is as humble and self-deprecating as they come. He’s quick to deflect credit and downplay his successes. As a coach, he makes clear that it’s a players’ league. As a player, he made clear he played alongside Hall of Famers like Jordan, Pippen and Dennis Rodman, and for Hall of Fame coaches in Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich.
But such talk sells short his impact and influence. He earned Jordan’s trust as a player for a reason. He has the respect of his current core of Curry, Thompson and Green for the same reason.
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He’s competitive as hell, reliable and puts in the work to be prepared for any situation, big or small.
“Steve is a leader of us,” Thompson said Thursday night in San Francisco during his postgame news conference. “He's just an incredible visionary when it comes to thinking basketball. There's a reason he's been around so much winning his whole life because he's just that type of person who just gravitates towards greatness.
“I'm so grateful to play for a coach like Steve. He's a real player's coach. He's just an incredible person.”
Kerr played for five championship teams as a player, including two more titles with Popovich’s Spurs. He’s now aiming for his fourth title as a coach, returning to the Finals after a two-year hiatus followed five straight trips.
That two-year hiatus perhaps best underscores Kerr’s steady hand and leadership. Just as he arrived in Chicago in 1993 following Jordan’s first retirement to play 164 straight games and become a valuable reserve, he showed up every day as the Warriors endured Kevin Durant’s free-agency departure and season-long injuries to Thompson and Curry to post the league’s worst record (15-50) in 2019-20.
It marked the first time in Kerr’s coaching career that he missed the playoffs. That stretched to two straight seasons in 2020-21 when Curry returned but Thompson suffered another season-long injury and the Warriors were eliminated in the Play-In Tournament.
But players at the time noted how Kerr coached the same and remained as competitive as ever.
“He makes everybody on the roster feel valued,” Curry told Warriors reporters during last season.
One could make an argument that this is one of Kerr’s best coaching seasons. Thompson played in 32 games after missing two seasons. Green played in 46 as he battled back issues. Curry missed 18 games with a foot injury. James Wiseman didn’t play. Andre Iguodala logged 31 games.
But Kerr and his staff helped push Jordan Poole to new heights. Gary Payton II emerged. Andrew Wiggins made his first All-Star team. And Kevon Looney and Otto Porter Jr. stayed healthy and helpful.
The Warriors jumped from a 39-33 record in the shortened 2020-21 season to a 53-29 mark, tied for the league’s third-best record.
And now they’re back on familiar ground in the Finals.
“We've done it before. But in a different way, it was incredibly meaningful given everything that we've been through organizationally over the last couple years,” Kerr said. “I think it's obviously all about talent and the players. They're the ones who were doing all the work.
“But we're really lucky to have great people in the organization, great ownership, incredible front office. The continuity and the connection we have together is really important.”
At the forefront is a winner.