Kerr steps up when the team needs him most

Hard to believe that in the 21st century NBA, a dunk would cause widespread anguish and consternation.

We’re talking about a dunk, people.

Monday night in Dallas, Warriors’ rookie sub Jordan Bell, on a breakaway with the Warriors winning easily, threw the ball off the backboard, grabbed it and dunked it.

It created a poop storm around the NBA. On cleanup duty: Steve Kerr.

The Warriors’ head coach talked about Dunkgate before Wednesday’s game against the Raptors. And he was happy to do so.

It was one of about five topics upon which Professor Kerr discoursed in his pregamer, which provided a glimpse into the mind and heart of the coach. It was unremarkable — every coach talks before every game —

yet subtly remarkable.

For one thing, Kerr was there. You know what Woody Allen allegedly said: “Ninety percent of success is just showing up.” Kerr’s ongoing headache is still ongoing.

He looked and sounded so upbeat, I thought maybe he’d had a breakthrough, or at least a break, a respite. I ran that by a couple people close to the team. Nope. Pain and assorted symptoms are still Kerr’s near-constant companion, and please don’t ask him how he’s feeling.

So here is a man coping admirably with a messed-up situation with no end in sight. Life goes on, and Kerr has opted to go on with it.

He opened his pregamer with a tribute to an Oracle security guard, Stephen Williams Sr., who recently passed away. Then Kerr gave a shout-out to LGBTQ Night at Oracle.

“I want to say that first of all, I’m proud to be part of an organization, and live in a region and area, that really embraces diversity,” he said.

A hint of politics there? You bet. If you want your ball coach to stick to sports, you better stick to a different ball coach. If anything, Kerr’s physical issues have put him even more in touch with the real world and all its phenomenal-ness and insanity.

Kerr talked about how cool it is that Klay Thompson has pledged $1,000 per point he scores in three games to North Bay fire victims, and indicated that maybe he (Kerr) would give Thompson more playing time, to rack up more points. Cha-ching.

Then Kerr talked about Bell’s impolite dunk in Dallas. Kerr said his initial reaction was to cringe, knowing Mavs coach Rick Carlisle would be miffed. Kerr told Bell to be ready

for some blowback, and Bell responded with a bewildered look. You get dog-housed for dunking? In the NBA? Really?

Kerr will defend his players almost to a fault. He will also call them out, privately and publicly, for substandard play and poor behavior. With Bell’s dunk, Kerr was conflicted. Clearly he gave it some thought. Wednesday he said it’s kind of an old school vs. new school issue, and:

“I kind of like what Draymond Green says: ‘You want to make it in this league, you take (a crazy shot), you don’t worry about what anybody thinks, and if that means that you throw the ball off the backboard and dunk it, ’cause you’re establishing yourself, go for it.’ ”

Kerr said he defines bad sportsmanship as physically endangering a foe. Everything else is just basketball. A game.

Kerr’s last word on the topic: “Draymond told Jordan, ‘You be you.’ And Draymond has forged an AllStar, phenomenal career out of basically saying, ‘Screw social norms, I’m going to come out here. I’m going to kick ass.’ And I like that, I respect that, I want Jordan to do the same. (Pause. Smile.) But he could still just dunk it next time.”

Green, of course, is the gift that keeps on giving, and sometimes blows up in your face. He’s a joy to coach, but he ain’t easy to handle, and Kerr relishes the challenge.

There is a widely-accepted NBA axiom that that players start tuning out a coach after three seasons. Even a great coach, even a great team.

During Pat Riley’s first season as the Lakers’ coach, he told his players a story about his father and a canoe trip. The players were in tears. Two years later, after a Riley team meeting, one player was asked what Riley had talked about. The player rolled his eyes and said, “He had us back in the f— canoe.”

But with Kerr and the Warriors, old NBA rules are made to be broken. This is Kerr’s fourth season. He plans to stick around. The players will have to adjust.