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00:00and every week, Great Clips sponsors our conversation with Coach Kerr, and for the next couple of weeks,
00:05they've got a special gift for one of our lucky listeners. Immediately following our conversation
00:12with the coach, we're giving away one $125 gift card to Great Clips. So with that,
00:18out to the River Islands guest line we go. It is time for Coach Kerr presented by Great Clips,
00:23and sports success is about team effort, and the same is true for your hair. Great Clips,
00:28it's going to be great. Hey coach, how are you doing tonight? I'm doing well, how are you guys?
00:33We're doing fine, congrats on getting the most wins as a warrior coach ever.
00:40Thank you, I appreciate that. It's kind of surreal to be honest with you. It happened
00:49pretty quickly, but it's a result of having a lot of amazing, talented players, that's for sure.
00:57Yeah, I wonder if this just popped to mind, because I'm thinking about your accomplishment,
01:03I'm thinking about Steph with the 4,000 threes, the 25,000 points. It feels like twice a week
01:11you guys are asked to kind of like reflect on your career. Does that actually keep happening,
01:18or does it just kind of all run together at a certain point? I think with Steph for sure,
01:25he just racks up records left and right, and it seems like there's a milestone every week,
01:30and of course he's going to be asked about it. I think in general, look, we're at the tail end of
01:39just an epic run, and these things don't happen very often, so when they do, you have to enjoy
01:46every second of it, and that's what we're trying to do. This has been so much fun the last few
01:52weeks to kind of reignite the flame and to realize, hey, we still have something here,
01:58and we've got a shot, and I think every guy in that locker room is enjoying it.
02:02Yeah, hopefully we're not at the tail end of the tail end, and we'll get a couple more
02:07seasons at least of this, and I couldn't help but wonder about Steph himself, and he sat out
02:13yesterday, and I know that it's his back, which has been a little bit ailing him, and also a
02:19little bit of rest. How's he doing, and how is he trending toward tomorrow? He's doing great. I
02:25mean, he's going to play tomorrow. I think, you know, I know Steph so well. He's a guy who puts
02:32his heart and soul into everything, and you almost have to protect him from himself at times, and so
02:40that rest last night was something that I felt really strongly about. I went to him, you know,
02:46the night before after the Denver game. He fought me on it a little bit, but I just told him, I go,
02:53look, I know you well, and you need a night off, and to me, it's no different from a baseball
02:58player. You know, those guys play every single night, every once in a while, and just take a
03:04seat and take a night off, and, you know, you'll come back refreshed, and your at-bats will,
03:09you know, be a little better the following night. I really feel like basketball players need that
03:14too, occasionally. It's just that it's not the norm, you know. We're not supposed to do that,
03:20but screw that. We're doing it, and I think Steph needed a night off. How does that conversation go?
03:25You said he fought you on it a little bit. He is the absolute best guy I can imagine to coach,
03:35because there's never any pretense. There's never any BS. It's just, it's so matter-of-fact,
03:43you know. It's just, hey, here's what I think, and then, you know, he lays out what he thinks,
03:49and we just come to a conclusion. We make a decision, and we move on, and we don't even
03:56look back, and I can explain it to the media exactly as it is. You know, I think there are
04:02a lot of athletes who might have been offended by me saying, hey, he needed an emotional break.
04:08Steph's not offended by that, because he knows it's true, and it's fine. That's part of it.
04:17Performance is really about a series of things. It's your physical well-being, but it's also your
04:28mental and emotional capacity, where you are, what's going on in your life. Everyone needs a
04:33day off once in a while, and that's okay, and I think Steph recognizes that, and the conversation
04:38is an easy one, and we just move forward. That's why he's the most amazing guy to coach that I can
04:44even imagine. I'm fascinated by what it was you saw in the Denver game that led you to that opinion.
04:51Like, what are the specifics that go into what you noticed? Well, like I said, it's been 11 years
04:58that we've collaborated and gotten to know each other, and frequently around this time,
05:06March, April, late in the season, there just comes a time where you can see with his decision making
05:12that he's a little off, and I've seen that the last couple games, and when that happens,
05:22it's just a reminder to him to, hey, let's take a day or go play golf. Let's get settled and
05:32centered, and you got to remember, this guy's got a million things in his life. When he's not
05:41saving the Warriors, he's saving the world, and it's incredible what he does to help people and
05:47the number of lives he touches, and I think it's important every once in a while to remind him
05:52to just take care of himself and take a day and fill up the cup again. How tough is that,
05:59though, to make that choice knowing he's your best player and then also realizing that you've
06:04got Milwaukee coming in, and you can't really trick off these games, so you get into last night.
06:10What's the message for the team knowing that you're not going to have Steph?
06:13In many ways, it's a good thing for the team. I learned this from Greg Popovich.
06:18It forces the rest of the guys to step up. It forces guys to focus. It also prepares you for
06:26a game later on, maybe, where Steph gets injured in the playoffs. You got to win a game. Well,
06:33hey, we did this before. We beat Milwaukee without him. You want to see your team respond
06:40to different types of adversity. It's no different from Denver the night before.
06:48Jokic, Murray, they take the night off. The team wins. They feel stronger for it.
06:56These moments can strengthen a team, and I think a lot of coaches around the league recognize that.
07:02Steve and Steve Kerr with us on Weatherden Dibs. You told us, I think it was last year,
07:05that you hate it when the best player on the other team gets ruled out.
07:09You know, because you feel like the team relaxes, and you spoke that maybe there was a little bit of
07:15that against Denver on Monday night. Did you sense any of that with Milwaukee last night with the
07:20good start that you guys got off to? No, I didn't sense anything from
07:26Milwaukee then. I sensed from our end that there was a great focus, and I would have expected that
07:33even with Steph in the lineup, because, you know, our team, when we lose in an embarrassing
07:41manner like we did, we're going to respond well that next night. So, I think that was part of it,
07:47but, you know, more than anything, I just think we have a really good team,
07:53and we've been in a great groove, and we had a slip up. We recognized it, and we locked in and
07:59played a really good game, and that's a sign of a good team. Locked in and locked down maybe the
08:05most singular force in the history of the association, the Greek Freak. Zero field goals
08:11made against Draymond Green. When you watch that performance, and you realize he's only been
08:16Defensive Player of the Year once, is that crazy to you, Steve? It is, because I think he's the
08:24best defender in the world, and I realize how good Wemba Nyama is, how good Rudy Gobert is,
08:29and others, but Draymond said it himself, ask the other coaches around the league who they
08:35don't want to face, and I've, you know, I have personally asked other coaches around the league,
08:42my friends, and trust me, there's so much respect for Draymond around the league amongst the coaches.
08:49They see the versatility in his defense, you know. These other guys are good defenders. I don't think
08:57any of them can do everything. Protect the rim, guard pick and roll out at half court,
09:03blow up stuff from the weak side. Draymond, he's a defensive genius. He's also a competitive freak
09:14of nature. Obviously, his emotion gets the best of him at times, but it's all part of the package,
09:22and the package is incredibly disruptive to opposing teams, and we are, you know,
09:30we're so lucky to have him. He remains an amazing player, even at this stage of his career.
09:37Coach, last week we asked you about the reintegration of Jonathan Kamenga. You said
09:41it was going to be a slow process. He came out and had a great first game back, I thought. It's
09:48now been four games, a little bit of a mixed bag. What are you seeing, and what have the challenges
09:54related been? Yeah, I mean, it's hard when you come back off of 10 weeks of being absent, and
10:03especially coming back to a brand new team. This is a very different team than the one he left,
10:09and so it's a little tricky to try to find your place in that, especially when the team's winning.
10:16You know, we're whatever we are since we got Jimmy, 15-2 or something. So the focus for JK
10:23just has to be play as hard as he can for short bursts. When he does that, he's really good. Like
10:29you mentioned, the Sacramento game, I think that's got to be the focus. Run the floor really hard,
10:35attack the rim, play in short bursts, and work your way back in, and I think that's his focus
10:41right now. Starting lineup, finishing lineup, it seems like all of it's malleable based on
10:47how everyone's playing. When you look at last night and you got down to crunch time, you didn't
10:51have JK in there. Was that a matchup thing, or just you going with the hot hands? I think if
10:58you look at our team right now, we have a lot of options to close games. I mean, the three guys
11:04who are going to be automatic are Steph, Draymond, and Jimmy. They're going to be out there every
11:09game. The other two slots, look, BP was amazing last night. He deserved to be out there. Gary
11:16Payton, he has been playing incredible basketball the last couple of weeks, and we needed him on
11:22Damian Lillard. So he was the obvious choice last night. You know, Buddy Heald played big minutes
11:27down the stretch, and that came, it could be Moses. You know, Buddy and Moses, we need from
11:32the shooting. Quinton Post played big minutes in the fourth quarter. If we want to space the floor
11:38with our five man to create the spacing that Jimmy needs, then Quinton makes sense. And then JK fits
11:44in there as well. You know, the athleticism, the switching, if the matchups lead to that decision,
11:51then JK will be out there like he was against Denver down the stretch. So we've got a lot of
11:56options, but I can tell you right now that it's going to be somebody different each night,
12:02depending on how the game's going. Steve, I wonder if you could help us through a conversation we
12:07were having earlier today. I think for a lot of fans, they look at Monday's game and they wake
12:14up frustrated, and then you surprise everybody by beating Milwaukee without Steph, and everyone goes,
12:19okay, all square, all even, they went one and one, it's all good. Is it that way for you guys? Did
12:25last night help you forget Monday, or is Monday still a source of frustration?
12:33No, you move on, you move on. And look, you also recognize that over the course of 82 games,
12:41every team has those nights. In fact, Denver had one the night, the game before our game,
12:46they lost at home to Washington. So that's part of the reason they came out and played the way
12:51they did without Jokic and Murray. So we had one against Denver, so we responded. And Milwaukee,
13:00same thing. Every team in the league has these stretches. It's human nature. Every team's got
13:06talent. Shots go in, shots don't go in. But over the course of the 82, there's just these huge
13:13swings, both health-wise, emotion-wise, and you just have to navigate the whole thing and
13:20keep moving forward. How much has Jimmy Butler been a steadying influence, another additional
13:25steadying influence in that? I know he's never won a championship, but he took Miami Deep on a
13:29couple of different occasions. Does that just give you an additional piece of somebody who
13:34is a veteran who kind of knows what's going on? Well, I think there is a presence to Jimmy that
13:41leads to winning. It's a swagger, even, you know, amongst, you know, all the alphas in the NBA,
13:50I think Jimmy is an alpha among alphas. I really do. And I think Steph and Draymond
13:57needed that. They needed somebody like him because they were in some ways, you know,
14:05not just, you know, not feeling like they had enough of that next to them. Like we've had in
14:13the past, we've been spoiled, obviously, with the talent that we've had here, but also the maturity
14:19and the presence. And so, you know, that was missing earlier in the year. Jimmy is, he's got
14:27presence. He's got swagger. He's got belief. You guys can feel it watching the games. Our teammates
14:33feel it. Our fans feel it. The guy wins games and it's showing. Wait a minute, Steve. Are you
14:40saying that you've got NBA alpha rankings and Jimmy Butler is number one? Wow. I can tell you
14:47this. That's how he feels about himself. And that's hugely important. The number one guy of
14:56all time was Michael Jordan. Okay. You know, as his teammate, I would walk in, I would walk into
15:02that arena and I would know that the other team was afraid of him. The officials were afraid of
15:08him. The fans were afraid of him. And even his own teammates, we were all a little afraid of him.
15:15Okay. And, and we all, and we all knew we were going to win. And that was, you know, that was
15:21the deal. Michael just dominated the space. And, um, there are very few guys like that. And, um,
15:29but, but when you have guys like that, there's a, there's an incredible sense of security and
15:35confidence. And I think Jimmy's one of those guys. I just, you can just feel his presence all the
15:39time. Speaking of alpha behavior, um, we had a caller last week, or it was the beginning of this
15:46week. We were talking about you actually, and, and, and becoming the winningest coach of the
15:50Warriors. And we had a caller call in who said that he worked like security detail or something
15:57inside the building when you first arrived as head coach. And he stated that he was there
16:04for your very first practice and that you set the tone by kicking everybody, the whole team out of
16:11practice because they were dribbling too much. Is this a true story in any way, shape or form?
16:19It does not ring a bell guys. I guarantee you. I didn't kick everybody else out of practice. I've
16:25never done that. And, and, uh, so I, I don't know where that came from. Have you kicked
16:29individuals out of practice before? Uh, potentially. Yeah, that might've happened.
16:36Potentially. I guess to follow up and ask you to name names probably won't happen. So
16:43just your notion of alphas had me thinking about your San Antonio Spurs championship teams. And
16:49I'm wondering about Manu and Tony and, and Tim Duncan, were any of them cut from the same kind
16:55of cloth that you're describing with Jimmy Butler and Michael Jordan, or does it not necessarily
17:00have to be that? I think Avery Johnson was honestly. And, and, and, uh, it was an interesting
17:06dynamic because, um, you know, usually the guy who's the alpha is also the best player, you know,
17:12and, and, um, but I think, you know, Tim Duncan was a lot more like Steph in terms of like incredibly
17:19competitive and skilled and talented and an amazing leader, but it came from humility.
17:26And, um, you know, the type of alpha that I'm talking about, um, it doesn't come from humility.
17:31It, it, it, it comes from the opposite end of the spectrum. Like I am the best here and you guys,
17:38uh, are gonna, uh, you know, follow me and that's the way it is. And, uh, so it's a, it's a very
17:44different form of leadership and, and, uh, Avery actually had that. And it was ironic because he
17:49was like the fourth best player on the team, but, uh, but it was a well-constructed team because,
17:56um, you know, I thought Tim and David were very soft-spoken and, and, um, we needed the fire and
18:03the leadership that Avery brought us and, you know, pop sense that too. And so pop provided a lot of
18:10that alpha, you know, presence. Um, and so, you know, every team's different. That's what makes
18:15it so much fun is, um, the construction of a group of human beings and how they interact.
18:20It's fascinating. All right, coach, tell me what I've got right. And tell me what I've got wrong.
18:25As far as your itinerary later, uh, dinner, uh, six 30, uh, about seven 15, you sit down to watch
18:32Lakers and nuggets and then post game 10 o'clock tonight, you sit down and fill out a bracket.
18:38What, what did I get right? What did I get wrong? Uh, dinner? Uh, yes. Uh, Lakers nuggets. Yes.
18:48Uh, bracket. Thanks for the reminder. I'm, I'm, uh, yeah, I need to, for the, uh, for the 30th
18:55year in a row, I need to pick Arizona to win the national championship. Yeah. You got a possible
19:00matchup against Mike Dunleavy in the 16. Cause Duke is the one seed in the region with Arizona.
19:06Is there any sort of like trash talk? I know Draymond green with Michigan state. He's probably
19:11talking a lot about their chances. There's always a good natured trash talk tournament time. That's
19:18what makes it fun. Um, I just hope we get there and, uh, and we get a crack at, at Mike Dunleavy
19:25blue devils. That would be fun. Don't you, uh, isn't the, uh, the second round matchup potentially
19:30Oregon? Is that right? Yeah. Oregon. Yeah. If we win and they win, we would, we would play in the
19:35four or five matchup in, in Seattle, old school pack 12 matchup. What's your, what's your breakdown
19:41of that potential matchup coach? I don't watch a college basketball except for Arizona. Um, I,
19:50I can tell you a lot about Arizona's team. I don't know, uh, anything about Oregon's team.
19:55So, uh, I am just a fan and I will always love my alma mater. I'm very close with Tommy Lloyd,
20:01who's a fantastic coach. We text all the time. Uh, so I'm pulling hard for them. And, uh,
20:09that school means everything to me. What, uh, what that school did for me in my life.
20:14Um, I, uh, I will be a forever wildcat. That's for sure. Is that the one that got away,
20:19Steve? Cause I always joke with Mark, how you've won nine of the last 29 NBA titles.
20:23But I think about your Arizona team senior year and you lost in the final four to Oklahoma,
20:28a very good team. Do you ever reflect on that being the one that got away?
20:34The only game I ever think about, honestly, anymore in my life, I still think about that game.
20:41It's absolutely the one that got away. I completely choked. Uh, we had an amazing team
20:4735 and two playing against Oklahoma in the final four. I shot two for 13 in that game. And, uh,
20:55it has haunted me ever since I still can't get over it, guys. I'm sick.
21:06Oh yeah. Thanks a lot. You ruined my night.
21:10Remember when Kyrie hit that three against you guys? Remember that?
21:17I forgot about that. Yeah. Okay. I just remember that team because, uh, your teammate,
21:23Craig McMillan, uh, McMillan was from Cloverdale who played high school ball against my brother.
21:28And so I was kind of distantly attracted to that team because he was almost kind of a,
21:34of a local kid who went on to do big things in Arizona. And then,
21:37yeah, sorry about that, Steve. Well, and my, my buddy, Tom Tolbert, uh, you know, uh, your,
21:44your media colleague, um, was, uh, was, uh, on that team, Sean Elliott, Kenny Lofton,
21:50you know, future baseball player. We were loaded and, uh, we had, uh, we had such an incredible
21:56group. In fact, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm hosting a bunch of them in a couple of weeks. They're all going
22:01to come out. We're going to have a little reunion. They're going to come up for, uh, for a weekend
22:04and, uh, for a game and, uh, can't wait to see those guys, but, uh, that's definitely the one
22:10that got away. It's, um, you know, it's, uh, it's part of sports. I get it, but, um, yeah,
22:16it's, uh, that, that game will, uh, will, will forever haunt me. Unfortunately,
22:20Steve is Kenny going to be part of the group that comes when you invite them all.
22:24He's, he's one of the few guys who couldn't make it. He's going to be in Cleveland for,
22:28uh, for an Indians, uh, reunion. Um, and, uh, so I, we can't make it, but, but a lot of the
22:35other guys are coming. It's going to be fun. Okay. I beat him on the golf course one time
22:38and I was going to ask you to, to, to follow up and talk some more trash for on my behalf,
22:43but if he won't be there, Oh, well, you must be good then. Cause Kenny can play golf. He's
22:48a good golfer. Well, we both kind of choked down the stretch. I just choked a little bit less. So
22:53it was anyway. Oh, good. Steve. Thanks so much. And, and enjoy what sounds like a perfect night.
23:00You guys take care.