Steve Kerr Q&A: On coaching and appreciating the moment
Steve Kerr never thought the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls 72-win record would fall, least of all by a Golden State Warriors squad he coached. But he also didn't think he'd play in the NBA either.
The coach of the best regular-season team in history (and player on the now-second best) sat down before the start of the Western Conference finals to ruminate on coaching, learning from your mistakes and enjoying the moment.
Ethan Sherwood Strauss: In your Coach of the Year press conference you said that you'd always wanted to be a coach. That was interesting to me, because I don't often hear that from former players. Was playing in the NBA almost a means to an end?
Steve Kerr: I didn't think I was going to play in the NBA at all. When I was in college, and I became a good college player, I thought all right maybe I can come back to Arizona as an assistant coach or grad assistant and get my start there. I didn't think I was going to play in the NBA. Once I started playing in the NBA, I was like, all right, maybe I can last a few years. If I play for 3 or 4 years and then I get cut, I'm still thinking go back to Arizona, work under Lute [Olson], learn the ropes, be a college coach. That was always there, but I ended up playing 15 years.
I was always going to play for as long as I could. I mean, there's nothing like playing. Playing is more fun than coaching. Obviously you make good money, and all that. I was always going to play as long as I could. I kind of surprised myself by playing as long as I could, and I was 37 when I retired. By that time, I was really deeply entrenched in the NBA, and the college stuff had sort of gone out the window. I wasn't thinking about college coaching anymore. I was thinking much more about NBA coaching, but I also knew the sacrifices you made. When I retired at 37, my kids were like 9, 7, and 4, or something, or maybe 10, 8, and 5, something like that, and I wanted to be home. That's why I went into broadcasting.
Now at that point, I'm like, I'm going to broadcast for a few years and then get into coaching. The Suns GM stuff kind of fell in my lap. [Robert] Sarver is a U of A person, Lute Olson connected us. I helped him meet David Stern in New York, thinking probably nothing's going to come of this. Then he ends up buying the team, and offers me a consulting position. I'm like, this is perfect. I'll just keep doing TV, but I can kinda get my feet wet on scouting and team-building. That's kind of the path that I took. While I was a GM, I knew I wanted to coach. I had suspected that before, but being a GM sort of confirmed that. I wanted to be on the floor and not upstairs in the office.
Once I left the Suns to go back to TNT, my kids were pretty much in high school, one in junior high. That's when I started preparing to coach and going to different clinics, owner's conferences, being on different panels, and talking to Jeff Van Gundy, and Flip Saunders, different people about preparing, and how to prepare. That's my whole story.
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http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/15582741/steve-kerr-qa-coaching-appreciating-moment
