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With tonight's awaited return of Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr came questions about his decision to jump in at this time and how he felt his team has done in his absence.
Declining to comment about the specifics of his health condition, Kerr admitted the decision had to do with feeling well enough to take the sidelines not only for Game 2, but for the rest of the NBA Finals.
“The only thing that’s been in play the whole time is just if I was going to be ready to do it, then I would do it,” Kerr told reporters in the pre-game press conference, according to Anthony Slater of the San Jose Mercury News. “I haven’t even said anything to the team. They have been informed throughout the process, they know that I’m doing better.”
“I’ve been kind of giving them updates, but we didn’t have a shootaround this morning, I didn’t send out the group text or anything. I am just going to go in there and — they probably already know because they’re all on their phones all the time.”
Having gone an impeccable 11-0 since his leave of absence, the 51-year-old coach praised his assistant, Mike Brown, for the job he did during the past month-and-change — doing so in his signature sarcastic manner.
“I just think the numbers are totally deceiving. You can talk like 15-0 or whatever he did, but the team was just falling apart at the seams, and so I just had to get back to make sure we righted the ship,” Kerr joked to reporters. “No, Mike is perfect, he’s perfect as my right-hand man. He’s such a good coach and a good person. And the way he’s handled this whole thing is incredible, just the humility and yet the confidence with which he took the reins.”
“Players appreciate him, the staff does, I certainly do. He’s an amazing guy and lucky to have him.”
Kerr will take over a Warriors team that seems fine-tuned in all areas of the game and will have a rather easy time transitioning to the sidelines — as he's been involved for the majority of the Western Conference Finals in practices, film sessions, shootarounds, and even giving motivational halftime speeches the past five games.
“The decisions that we make during the game, they’re always collaborative, so we’ll be — I’ll be game coaching with Mike and Jarron and Ron and Q and we’ll make our decisions together, but it’s not really — it’s not really that much different,” he said. “It’s the same thing that I’ve been doing for the last three years, but, unfortunately, I’ve had a couple of times during my coaching stint here where there’s been interruptions, unfortunately. But that’s the way it goes.”
