IF HE WORKED FOR ME IN THE NBA, STEVE KERR WOULD NOT SPEAK AT THE DNC
But he hates Donald Trump and abhors gun violence, so there he was Monday in a building where he won NBA championships as a player, using Steph Curry to say ‘Night, Night!’ amid the presidential race
Only Steve Kerr knows. Would he have appeared Monday night at the Democratic National Convention, with the familiar Alan Parsons Project music playing inside the United Center, if America’s Olympic basketball team had lost to France or Serbia? He was the coach. He’d have been nationally bludgeoned. How could he let the Harlem Globetrotters lose to the Washington Generals?
But he won, thanks to Steph Curry and despite the issues Kerr created by benching Jayson Tatum and suppressing superstar egos. And there he was — after winning four NBA titles with the Golden State Warriors and five earlier as a player, including three with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s — a keeper of diamond rings and a rousing servant to Kamala Harris. If I owned a franchise, I wouldn’t let my politically vocal coach stand in front of Democrats knowing Republicans also pay money to support my team.
“I can see the ‘shut up and whistle’ tweets being fired off as we speak,” Kerr said on the podium in his loosened tie. “But I also know as an American citizen that it was too important not to speak up in an election of this magnitude.”
So there he was in his old town, speaking of Nov. 5, reawakening the final moments in Paris and mentioning the name he hates more than anyone else on Earth. “After the votes are tallied, in the words of the great Steph Curry, we can tell Donald Trump, ‘Night, night!’ ’’ Kerr said.
And there he was, reminding Americans of what happened in the arena — a sports dynasty more dominant than what he built in the Bay Area. “As you guys know, a lot of good stuff has happened in this building, especially in the ‘90s. Young people, Google ‘Michael Jordan’ and you can read all about it,” Kerr said. “There was an amazing vibe in the building back in those days, and I feel that same winning spirit here tonight.”
If he wanted to enter politics, Kerr would have done so before he was age 58. Deep down, we sense his chattering wine dinners with Gregg Popovich would become a tag team hellbent for public office. Instead, he was on the talk-fast circuit as Democrats thundered for Trump — “Lock him up!” — during Hillary Clinton’s speech. He was right there, open for a jumpshot with a championship on the line, as Harris strolled into the building to the beat of Beyonce’s “Freedom.”
“Think about what our team achieved with 12 Americans in Paris, putting aside rivalries to represent our country. Now imagine what we could do with all 330 million of us playing on the same team,” he said. “Leadership, real leadership, is not the kind that seeks to divide us, but the kind that recognizes and celebrates our common purpose. As a coach and former player, I believe that leaders must display dignity. I believe that leaders must tell the truth. I believe that leaders should be able to laugh at themselves. I believe leaders must care for and love the people they are leading. I believe leaders should posses logic and expertise, but with the full awareness that none of us have all the answers. In fact, some of the best answers come from members in the team.
“And when you think about it that way, this is no contest. With Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, I see all those qualities. They’ve devoted their lives to serving other people. Whether Vice President Harris was defending her community in the courtroom or Governor Walz was inspiring the next generation in the classroom or on the field, for that matter. By the way, coach to coach, that guy is awesome.”
I am not here to support Harris. I do not use my column to support any candidate. I am telling you about a man who almost tore out his hair follicles to win another gold medal. When he was 18, Kerr lost his father, Malcolm Kerr, to gun violence when he was assassinated as president of the American University of Beirut. Remember what he said two years ago in Uvalde, Texas, when 19 children and two adults were killed by a gunman. “I’m fed up, I’ve had enough,” he said. “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?”
He works for an owner, Joe Lacob, who allows him to verbalize. He works in a part of the country that generally wants him to verbalize. Most importantly, Kerr continues to win like few coaches this nation has produced. He is finished with Olympians, by the way, probably handing duties to Erik Spoelstra for Los Angeles in 2028. As he told The Athletic before the Summer Games, he can’t carry on the way Mike Krzyzewski and Jerry Colangelo did in winning three gold medals.
“To me, it’s a two-year … it’s a cycle. Pop coached a World Cup and the Olympics, now it’s my turn to pass the baton. I think that’s kind of how it should be,” Kerr said. “Frankly, it’s a huge commitment too. I guess I think it was different the last go-around with Coach K and Jerry, when they were really establishing this culture and a system where guys had to commit for a couple years. Made sense for Coach K to stay on. But I think where we are now, one cycle and you move on.”
He won’t win another championship. He’ll finish with nine NBA rings, fewer than Phil Jackson but showing uncommon versatility as a coach and player. The new cycle for Steve Kerr is to congratulate Kamala Harris in November. She already has spoken to his players, as they prepared for France, and each man applauded.
His work is done, whether we like it or not.
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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.