USA Basketball announces Kerr as next Olympic men’s coach

Steve Kerr saw everything that Gregg Popovich went through as coach of the U.S. men’s national team, saw exactly how difficult it was last summer for the Americans to emerge from the Tokyo Olympics with another gold medal.

And when he walked off the floor for the last time in Tokyo, he was drained. “It wasn’t easy,” Kerr said.

It wasn’t, and it was just further proof that the days of U.S. cakewalks to gold are over. He decided to take the job anyway.

Kerr was formally announced as the next coach of the U.S. men’s team on Monday in San Francisco, a not-verywell-kept secret in recent weeks that the Golden State coach would be taking over for Popovich and leading the Americans – if they qualify – into the 2023 Basketball World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Kerr’s assistant coaches will be Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams and Gonzaga coach Mark Few.