Warriors coach Kerr is out until health issues are solved
A frustrated Steve Kerr met with reporters for nearly seven minutes in the team’s Portland hotel on Sunday afternoon, announcing that his health issues “took a turn for the worse” over the past five days.
The Warriors coach said he will not coach the team in Game 4 Monday and will be out indefinitely until his health status improves.
“You guys saw me at the end of Game 2, I was very uncomfortable,” Kerr said. “I was uncomfortable at practice the other day. With things getting worse, I decided I couldn’t coach.
“So as of now, I’m consulting with my doctors, hoping for some improvement and if I get improvement, I’ll get back on the sidelines.
“But I’m not going to do that until I know I can help the team.”
Two offseasons ago, Kerr had two separate back surgeries that resulted in spinal fluid leak. Persistent headaches and pain resulted from the complications, forcing him to miss the first 43 games last season as he tried to rehab.
Kerr returned, coached through the playoffs and coached all 82 games this season. But the symptoms, which he’s constantly trying to control, worsened over the past week.
“I can tell you if you’re listening out there, stay away from back surgery,” Kerr said. “I can say that with the bottom of my heart. Rehab, rehab, rehab. Don’t let anyone get in there.”
Kerr said he will determine the next step in the coming days, but it “wouldn’t be a scenario” where he coaches one game and doesn’t the next.
“I’m not going to do that to our team and our staff,” Kerr said. “We’re hoping over the next week or two — whatever it is — I can sort of make a definitive realization or deduction or just feel that I’m going to do it or I’m not.”
Kerr was then asked if there was a scenario where he wouldn’t coach the rest of the postseason.
“Yeah,” Kerr said. “I just said that.”
Wizards
The nastiness between the Washington and Atlanta ramped up even more when the Wizards’ Markieff Morris called Hawks star Paul Millsap a “crybaby” after Game 3. Millsap took the comment personally and it will be interesting to see how it affects his play. It would be hard to top his last performance, when he led the Hawks with 29 points and 14 rebounds, to go along with five assists.
Bulls
The NBA has fined Chicago Bulls guard Rajon Rondo $25,000 for attempting to trip Boston Celtics forward Jae Crowder from the bench in Game 3 of their first-round series. Crowder jawed at the Bulls’ bench after hitting a jumper in Friday’s game and Rondo — sidelined by a broken right thumb — extended his leg as Crowder walked by. “When you tear an ACL, your leg gets stiff every once in a while,” Rondo said. “I was stretching my leg out. I always do that throughout the game, I guess he was so deep in our bench, it looked like what may have happened, happened.”
Rockets
The NBA has fined Houston guard Patrick Beverley $25,000 for confronting a fan after Game 3 of the team’s first-round playoff series against Oklahoma City . The league announced the fine about two hours before Game 4 tipped off Sunday. Beverley had two incidents with the same fan Friday night in Oklahoma City. Video shows Beverley falling in front of the fan in the first half, then getting up and pointing at him before Nene redirected him. Beverley also exchanged words with the fan after the game.
Trail Blazers
Jusuf Nurkic won’t play for Portland in Game 4 against Golden State. Nurkic missed the final seven games of the regular season and the first two playoff games at Golden State because of a nondisplaced fracture in his right leg.