Medical issues raise question: Can he return?

PORTLAND, Ore. — When the Warriors’ bus pulls away from the team’s swank downtown hotel Monday night and heads across the Willamette River for Game 4 of the series against the Trail Blazers, the seat directly behind the bus driver will be empty. That’s the coach’s seat. Steve Kerr will be back at the hotel, which has become his prison this week. He’ll watch the game on TV, headaches permitting.

Mike Brown will take Kerr’s place on the bench, but on the bus Brown will assume his usual seat, a couple of rows back and on the other side of the aisle.

Kerr met with the media at the team hotel Sunday afternoon to give an update on his condition. He would be a terrible soap-opera writer. Kerr doesn’t manufacture

drama, or milk it, especially not when it involves him. He hates being The Story.

So he was matter-of-fact and low-key, but his message was dramatic.

His headaches and back pains are getting worse. He is consulting doctors, seeking relief, but he has been doing that for the past year and a half.

Kerr could miss the rest of the playoffs. Worse, his coaching future is in jeopardy. If the symptoms don’t subside, Kerr would have to consider stepping away from coaching.

Short term, his absence won’t be catastrophic. The Warriors are, to use Stephen Curry’s pet phrase, locked in. If anything, they will be even more driven and determined, lest they let their coach down.

But long term? It’s hard to find reason for optimism. Beyond the question of coaching, this man who has earned the admiration and affection of a lot of people could see the quality of his life severely compromised.

Sunday, Kerr had no answers. He is in medical limbo. All he knows is that he can’t coach right now and that he won’t keep his team on an emotional yo-yo.

“I will say this,” Kerr said. “This is not going to be a case where I’m coaching one night and not coaching the next. I’m not going to do that to our team, our staff. We’re hoping that over the next week or two, whatever it is, that I can sort of make a definitive realization, or deduction, or just feel it, that I’m going to do this or I’m not.”

If that simple declaration doesn’t hit you like a 2-by-4, you haven’t let yourself be entertained, charmed or otherwise blown away by what the Warriors have become since Kerr was hired in 2014.

His legacy, if he stepped away now?

It would be more than the stunning volume of wins. It would be about the style and the substance of the Warriors. Since Kerr’s hiring in the summer of 2014, the Warriors have become the Camelot of sports.

Kerr assembled a diverse and effective staff, then formulated an entirely new offense to exploit the talents of his players, especially Curry.

Kerr once told me he had incredible anxiety during his first training camp. He knew his offense was clever, but he had no idea if it would work. There was a very real chance the players would reject the rookie coach’s grand scheme.

“If that happened, I would have been gone in a couple of months,” Kerr said. “That’s simply the way this league works.”

Kerr’s turboglide offense was a perfect fit.

Even more impressive was the way Kerr won the confidence and respect of his players by showing them confidence and respect — and leadership. He introduced them to yoga, and to passing the ball, and to mindfulness.

Kerr inherited a really fine team and took it to a new level, approximately halfway to the stars.

Sunday, Kerr was asked if his stepping aside temporarily is out of concern that, pain aside, he might not be at his best as a coach.

“Sure,” he said. “I have to determine that. And I think that over the last year and a half, I’ve done a good job (of determining that). I feel comfortable with my ability to communicate with the guys and make decisions during the game. I would not have been comfortable with that last night. That’s why I sat out, and that’s why I’m sitting out tomorrow, and as I said, we’ll see where it all goes.”

Kerr told the players he does not want to be their Gipper. He wants them to be inspired by one another and by the joy of the game, not by his problem.

Monday night, the team bus will take off without the coach. We’ll see where it all goes.