LOS ANGELES — Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has been a part of a number of the most notable NBA Finals moments in history, sharing these experiences as a player and coach with some of the biggest legends in the sport. It's hard for Kerr to pinpoint the most memorable one, but he tried Sunday as his Warriors took on LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Maybe the first championship team I was on in '96, just because when you haven't done something before, and it's a lifelong dream and you break through it's an amazing feeling. They're all great, winning a championship any season is great. But the first time is pretty remarkable,” Steve Kerr told ClutchPoints.
Kerr is an eight-time NBA champion, having won five titles as a player (three with the Chicago Bulls and two with the San Antonio Spurs) and three with the Warriors as a head coach. As he noted, Kerr first broke through as a champion in 1996 as a member of the 72-win Bulls.
Kerr then played an essential part in the Bulls' championship victory in the 1997 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz. In the final seconds of Game 6, with a tied score of 86, he got open for a pass from Michael Jordan and hit the title-clinching basket. It gave the Bulls their fifth title in franchise history and provided Kerr with a great story:
Steve Kerr was also a part of the Bulls team that won in 1998, which was recently highlighted in “The Last Dance.” Jordan ended the series against the Jazz in Game 6 with one of the most iconic game-winning shots ever.
In 2015 as head coach, Kerr led the Warriors to their first championship since 1975. The next season, he would be part of history again, both on the right side and wrong side. The Warriors broke the Bulls' 72-win record by going 73-9, but they fell short in closing out LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers by allowing the Cavs to be the first team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the Finals. That series was capped off by an epic Game 7 featuring LeBron's chase-down block and Kyrie Irving's clutch game-winner.
The Warriors came back the following season to showcase what Stephen Curry called “some of the best basketball the world has ever seen.” That year the team added Kevin Durant in free agency, which ended with a 4-1 beating of the Cavs. Kevin Durant made a huge 3-pointer in James' face in Game 3 that is still the biggest shot of his career.
Golden State followed that up by repeating in 2018, only to fall short of a three-peat in 2019 due to devastating injuries to Durant and Klay Thompson against the Toronto Raptors in the Finals.
If anybody can honestly say they've seen everything, it would be Steve Kerr. With over 30 years in the NBA, he has either played with the best or against the best. From being the person taking the big shot or watching a teammate hit the game-winner to drawing up the game plan to take down one of the most prominent figures in sports history, Kerr has seen it all. There have been many great champions throughout the years, but Steve Kerr might just have the widest range of Finals experiences.
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