AS HIS RAGE ECHOES, KERR SHOULD CONSIDER RUNNING FOR OFFICE

Amid the horror of another school massacre, the strongest rant comes not from America’s politicians but the acclaimed coach, whose leadership brilliance and passion are sorely needed in a broken land

     He spoke as one of us, another aggrieved and outraged American. And for the most important two minutes and 48 seconds ever spent behind a live microphone before a sporting event, we forgot that Steve Kerr is an acclaimed coach — and remembered that he’s one of the smartest people we’ll ever come across. He is so astute and passionate and conscientious, in fact, why would he be needed anymore on a basketball sideline, drawing up plays on a board?

     This is a man who should be running for office, as soon as humanly and professionally possible. In the context of a country in disarray, Kerr has little more to accomplish in NBA arenas when he’s built to shake up the American political arena. His fiery independence, basic common sense and absence of an agenda beyond human wellness and safety — I know, all are in short supply — should be funneled into our hopeless national morass. We sorely need politicians who don’t act or talk like politicians. We must confront the unceasing wave of mass shootings, more than 200 already in bloody headlines not five full months into a new year, with more than the usual Congressional lip service. Our children cannot attend school with danger lurking every day, every hour.

     Someone, anyone, must do something. Why not Steve Kerr, who always has aimed high — as a head coach and a jumpshooter — and might do us all a favor by considering a higher calling? Even as he carves a historical niche as an author of the league’s latest dynasty, assuming the Golden State Warriors validate current trends and win their fourth championship in eight years, we’ll remember this playoff run not for another trophy ceremony but for Kerr’s Tuesday evening rant in Dallas.

     Of the many sports figures who posit themselves as socially conscious, he’s the one who actually comes from a place of profound tragedy and has every right to lash out when he wants. His father, Malcolm, was shot and murdered 38 years ago in a terrorist attack in Lebanon, where he was president of the American University of Beirut. The pain in Kerr’s voice reveals that he’s still mourning the loss, always will carry the anguish and never will shy from advocating gun law reform, regardless of the backlash he invites on social media. Voice quaking, eyes watering, fists pounding a table, he used his allotted media time to address the latest gun horror at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, about 375 miles from where he sat before Game 4 of a Western Conference finals that suddenly meant nothing amid the terror of death in a land that doesn’t value life. This was a verbal onslaught unlike any seen in sports during a postseason moment, when coaches normally are obsessed with title missions.

     “I’m not going to talk about basketball. Any basketball questions don’t matter,” Kerr began. “In the last 10 days, we’ve had elderly black people killed in a supermarket in Buffalo, we’ve had Asian churchgoers killed in Southern California, now we have children murdered at school. When are we going to do something? I’m tired. I’m so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there. I’m so tired. Excuse me. I’m sorry. I’m tired of the moments of silence. Enough!”

     He stared into a bank of TV cameras and addressed Mitch McConnell by name, urging him and other U.S. senators to approve H.R.8, a bill requiring background checks for firearms transfers. It passed early last year in the House of Representatives but has been clogged by red tape on the Senate floor. “There’s a reason they won’t vote on it: to hold on to power,” said Kerr, visibly seething. “I ask you, Mitch McConnell, all of you senators who refuse to do anything about the violence, school shootings, supermarket shootings, I ask you: Are you going to put your own desire for power ahead of the lives of our children and our elderly and our churchgoers? Because that’s what it looks like. That’s what we do every week.

     “So I’m fed up. I’ve had enough. We’re going to play the game tonight. But I want every person here, every person listening to this, to think about your own child or grandchild, mother or father, sister, brother. How would you feel if this happened to you today? We can’t get numb to this. We can’t sit here and just read about it and go, ‘Well, let’s have a moment of silence. Go Dubs. C’mon, Mavs, let’s go.’ That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go play a basketball game.”

     The game went on. It always does these days, as there are revenues to be generated, viewers to be entertained and gamblers to be fed. But a day later, as the Warriors returned home with a 3-1 series lead after a sluggish loss to the Mavericks, Kerr remained the buzz of sports and news cycles alike. Many were thinking what I’m thinking: Are his leadership powers being wasted in sports? Athletic figures have crossed over into politics, some more successful than others, but few on the level of Kerr. He’s still young, just 56, especially by fossilized Biden/Trump standards. His place in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is secure, his ring count as a coach and player approaching double figures.

     Bill Bradley served three terms as a Democratic senator after a fine NBA playing career. Tom McMillen, a league journeyman, served three terms in the House of Representatives. Chris Dudley narrowly lost a bid for Oregon governor. Kevin Johnson was mayor of Sacramento for eight years, a run that didn’t end well. None ever came close to conducting a broadside with Kerr’s fervor.

     “Fifty senators in Washington are going to hold us hostage,” he went on. “Do you realize that 90 percent of Americans, regardless of political party, want background checks, universal background checks? Ninety percent of us. We are being held hostage by 50 senators in Washington who refuse to even put it to a vote, despite what we the American people want.

     “They won’t vote on it because they want to hold on to their own power. It’s pathetic. I’ve had enough.”

     In general terms, I’m not fond of sports figures who use pre-game media gatherings as political rallies. My view isn’t about “sticking to sports” as much as realizing millions of Americans rely on sports as escapism from real life. When Gregg Popovich routinely used his NBA media time to rail against Donald Trump, in the infancy of his presidency, I always thought of the father who was taking his kids to a game and preferred to hear a world-famous coach talk about his San Antonio Spurs.

     This isn’t the first time Steve Kerr has taken aim at government for its failings. But when the subject is gun control, he is encouraged to bring it on whenever his inner rage moves him. His has been a life well-lived, but it could be fuller if he truly wants. He’d have my vote. And Steph Curry’s.

     “I appreciate his leadership,” the Warriors’ superstar said after Game 4. “It was on everybody’s mind coming into the game. It was kind of hard to stay focused on going out and playing basketball knowing what happened in this state. I’ve got kids. Send them to school every day, drop ’em off, and you feel for the parents that are going through what they’re going through. I can’t even imagine the pain. So for Coach to come up here and say what he said and every word that he said was powerful and it was meaningful. I accept that challenge of trying to figure out a way to use my voice and platform to hopefully make change.

     “You can tell what it meant to him, to come up in front of you all and use this microphone and say what he said. I appreciate his leadership on that. He’s been doing that since I’ve known him.”

     He’ll likely have three more weeks front and center in the American consciousness. The platform is his, and the mic is live, ready for more furnace blasts. Tell me whose diatribe was more effective — Kerr’s or that of President Biden, who said, “When in god’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? Why are we willing to live with this carnage?”

     Advantage, Kerr. His anguish was real, rising from the embers of his soul. No longer should he stick to basketball. Life is summoning him.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.