On top, yet looking for another level
As Warriors enjoy the spoils, coach foresees better things
DEL MAR, San Diego County — One night last season, when Steve Kerr arrived for his usual pregame news conference, he joked to team vice president of communications Raymond Ridder that as the Warriors’ head coach, he should have walk-in music.
Two nights later when Kerr arrived for his pregame presser, Ridder cranked a tune through an iPhone speaker: Elton John’s “The Bitch Is Back.”
When you’re Steve Kerr, sometimes you have to roll with the playful, freewheeling culture you helped create over three golden seasons.
Besides, the b-word back. In an exclusive interview with The Chronicle near Kerr’s San Diegoarea home, he makes it clear that though he hasn’t
shaken the headaches that caused him to miss 11 games during the playoffs, he will be ready to rip when training camp opens in September.
In Part One of the interview, in Sunday’s Chronicle, Kerr talked about health, life and philosophy. Here he discusses his team, his job and prospects for the coming season.
He arrived for lunch straight from the beach, in shorts, Tshirt, cap and sandy flip-flops. Kerr dresses up when he has to, dresses down when he doesn’t.
Kerr once told me that preparing for his first training camp, three years ago, he felt a ton of stress and anxiety. The rookie head coach was loaded with creative schemes and dreams, but he was haunted by the potential for colossal failure.
How is it now, prepping for his fourth camp?
“I don’t feel that (stress) at all,” Kerr says, looking as relaxed as he sounds. “What I felt that first year was, I had all these big plans but I had no idea if any of this stuff would work (laugh). And then I quickly realized that if you’ve got good players, they’re going to make good plays, they’re going to be successful, as long as you let ’em do their thing and put ’em in the right position.
“I think we figured that out, and we have a good thing going. We have a lot of momentum, and our guys have a comfort level, and obviously, we’re loaded with talent. It’s fun to think about the season, think about where we can get better, players we can add. That’s what I spend a lot of my time down here doing, just thinking about what’s next for us.
“But I don’t worry at all about us being successful; I don’t worry about anybody’s ego getting in the way.”
That’s a simple statement, but a stunning one in today’s NBA world. Drama, doubt and dissension dog all the teams that are nipping at the Warriors’ heels. The Cavaliers, who have faced the Warriors in the past three NBA Finals, don’t know whether LeBron James has one foot out the door, don’t know whether Kyrie Irving will even speak to his teammates.
How in hell have the Warriors managed to look like the crew of the Good Ship Lollipop? Where’s the drama?
“I just think that’s who we are, who our guys are,” Kerr says with a shrug. “They love life. You see what Steph (Curry) is doing this summer, having the time of his life. The world’s his playground. (Kevin Durant) and Draymond (Green) are traveling the world and just enjoying the fruits of being a champion. There’s a license that comes with winning. When you win, if you choose to just keep going, you can just keep going, and people are going to give you a pass for stuff.”
Kerr points out that the Warriors had some drama last offseason, much of it set off by outside voices after they squandered a 3-1 lead and lost in the Finals.
“Ultimately, we’re in a great spot,” Kerr says. “Our guys are happy, they’re doing their thing. There’s no need for much drama. The most impressive thing with our guys is, people talk about Pat Riley’s book and what he calls ‘the disease of me,’ where you win a championship and all of a sudden, everyone wants a bigger role, more money, whatever.
“I think that is sort of human nature, to want more, but our guys, I think, have a genuine awareness that they’re getting all that through winning. More is coming their way individually as a result of the team’s success. It takes a really mature perspective to feel that way.”
The book “Moneyball” explored how the A’s invented creative ways to overcome the handicap of having a lower payroll. In a similar way, Kerr improved the Warriors’ offense dramatically with his creativity, installing an extreme motion-and-movement offense to exploit his players’ shooting skills and high basketball IQs.
With the Athletics, other teams soon co-opted the innovations and tricks, sending the A’s back to scuffling for an edge. Is Kerr worried about other teams catching up with his revolutionary run-and-fun Warriors?
He quickly dismisses that concern.
“I don’t look at it that way,” he says, sipping an iced tea. “I don’t feel like we reinvented the wheel, by any means. Everything changed in the NBA starting with Mike D’Antoni (now head coach of the Rockets). I was there for a couple of those years with Mike,” when Kerr was the Suns’ general manager and D’Antoni the head coach.
Kerr says the big change started around 2004, thanks to D’Antoni and to rule changes that allowed for more zonetype defenses, stripping away much of the effectiveness of great low-post centers. The new rules put a premium on athleticism and speed over size.
Kerr considers D’Antoni a “revolutionary figure.” That said, Kerr’s adaptation of D’Antoni’s style to the Warriors’ personnel was accomplished with a near genius touch.
“It’s a different formula, but it’s the same concept,” Kerr says. “Pace and space and movement and playing a fun style. I think Mike really jolted the league with those Suns teams, and I think a lot of teams are following suit. Teams are playing faster and faster.
“The game is just so different, and I think what makes our team special is that (general manager Bob Myers) has been a visionary in terms of roster-building. The number of playmakers we have, the number of like-sized defenders who can switch and play multiple spots, I don’t think anybody’s ever seen it.”
Kerr notes that the championship Chicago teams on which he played were similar, with several key players in the 6-foot-7 range.
“But not many teams have ever looked like ours” now, he says.
The Warriors have been to three straight Finals under Kerr, winning twice, but there is a sense that another level of greatness is out there. In the book “The Boys in the Boat,” which Kerr has read, author Daniel James Brown uses the rowing term “catching your swing,” which is a rare moment of transcendent teamwork: All were merged into one smoothly working machine; they were, in fact, a poem of motion, a symphony of swinging blades.
The question to Kerr is, have the Warriors ever “caught their swing,” found that ultimate zone, for a significant period of time? Or is that higher level still out there waiting to be reached?
“What’s interesting,” Kerr says, “is that I think we caught our swing the year we didn’t win it all, ironically enough. I think the first year (2014-15), even though we were winning, we were still exploring who we were, figuring it out. I think we had our share of turbulence in the playoffs that year — had to come (from behind) in two different series, probably caught a break with Cleveland getting some injuries. Ultimately we won and it was like, ‘Oh, God, we won a championship!’
“So even though we won 67 games and a title, to me, I still didn’t think we had hit our groove. The next year, we hit our groove.
“This team has a chance to catch their swing. But again, the lesson I’ve learned in the NBA is that it’s a marathon. So we could catch our swing early, that doesn’t mean we’re going to win the whole thing. But I expect us to be in a good groove right from the beginning, based on KD (Durant) and David (West) and Zaza (Pachulia) having a year under their belt, and JaVale (McGee).
“The continuity is so important in this league, and the confidence we’re going to have coming off the championship. We’re going to be in a good groove, but that doesn’t guarantee anything. You’ve got to be healthy, and you’ve got to have the energy and the will and all that when the playoffs start.”
When the playoffs start. Experienced Warriors fans have painful memories of seasons on end when reaching the playoffs was not a given, was not even a prayer. It’s a different day, and the surfer dude is guiding the ship.
Interview over, Kerr looks at the small pile of sand on the floor at his feet, laughs and says, “Wow, I made a mess.” Outside, the valet-parking guy is excited to see Kerr. Not because the young man recognizes the coach of the best basketball team in the world, but because Kerr flips the kid a twenty.