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Despite breezing to a 16-1 playoff run in the postseason, the Golden State Warriors faced a couple of concerns with the early injury to Kevin Durant and an unforeseen change of events with Steve Kerr falling victim to the effects of his back surgery, rendering him unable to coach.
Enter first-year assistant coach Mike Brown, who had to step into the hot seat at a crucial time as the acting head coach just as the team started to get its groove back.
While Kerr and Brown had developed an excellent rapport through the season, the latter became an extension of Kerr, a branch coming from the same tree, not changing, but continuing on a culture already in place — urging the team to keep steady through their winning streak.
While it might have been seen as smooth sailing from the outside, Brown knows the challenge it took to keep this team running the way it did.
”It’s probably one of the toughest things I’ve had to walk into,” Brown told Mark Medina of the San Jose Mercury News. “I just relied on the experiences I had in the past. I tried to figure out different scenarios or situations good and bad that we may run into throughout the course of this run as the acting head coach and imagined myself in a situation that made me uncomfortable because we’re down big or a player and I had a disagreement.”
“I tried to internalize how I would respond. It was almost like when you give a speech, you look in the mirror and say the speech to yourself so you can watch your facial inflections, reactions and all that other stuff. Then you go out and you actually do it.”
Brown led the team to an undefeated 11-0 run before passing the baton back to Kerr in the NBA Finals, where he finished the job, bringing another championship to the organization.
While the 47-year-old has had prior coaching experiences as a head coach and an assistant in the league, having to take a partner's seat proved to be a challenging role, one in which he excelled with this roster.
