Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was caught by surprise when asked if his team played like slugs, a term Cleveland Cavaliers coach John Beilein used to amend his previous statement during a recent film session.
Beilein, a first-year NBA coach, was said to have told his team that they were no longer playing “like a bunch of thugs,” and once confronted with it, he reached out to players individually to explain he meant to use the word “slugs.”
Unbeknownst to this information, Kerr asked for some clarification before responding to Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic, who prompted the topic.
“Marcus, you can't just throw that at me,” said Kerr after a 107-98 home loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night. “We were flying around there defensively, kind of like Bugs. That doesn't really rhyme.”
Steve Kerr was asked if he was happy the Warriors didn’t play like slugs 😂 pic.twitter.com/Ct2sXj0VhJ
— KNBR (@KNBR) January 9, 2020
Kerr was a good sport about it, considering the story about Beilein's blunder with the Cavs broke during the first quarter of Bucks vs. Warriors — making it impossible for Kerr to anticipate the question.
Beilein will have a tough time getting out of this one, as no matter how lispy he may get, there are no correlating “thugs” and “slugs” as a mistake of pronunciation. The Cavs coach, who led the University of Michigan for 12 years before coming to the NBA, is already not well-liked within his own locker room, making this latest mistake one that can determine the fate of his job.
Kerr has managed to remain in good graces, despite having a completely different cast of players and seeing different results, but as long as his defense keeps zapping around like Bugs, it's unlikely that he'll have a lapse in judgment like Beilein's.
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