Steve Kerr could already see the finish line playing for the San Antonio Spurs in 2002-03. He played in 75 games that season but averaged under 13 minutes a night and just 4.6 minutes across five playoff appearances. Still, the lessons he took from that team were some of the most valuable of his career and came in handy later in his coaching journey.
“My role, really, was the vet guy on the bench to provide internal leadership and just work and stay ready,” the five-time NBA champion said in an interview with Ernie Johnson in 2020. “I think I learned valuable lessons in the latter stages of my career that I’ve been really able to utilize as a coach. Your roster construction is so important. If you have too many young guys all fighting for playing time, status, and money, it’s a disaster.”
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As Kerr noted, roster balance is everything in the league. There should be enough veterans on the bench to keep the young guys in line, but you also could not physically survive 82 games with too many old heads in there. It was the perfect ending to his playing career and the ideal beginning for his front office and coaching philosophy.
Staying ready
As EJ recapped in the interview, the 50th overall pick of the 1988 draft was the odd man out in the Spurs rotation in their 2003 title run. He played exactly two minutes and nine seconds in the first five games, appearing only in Games 3 and 4.
Then came Game 6. San Antonio was still in control of the series but in danger of going into Game 7. Tony Parker suffered from food poisoning that forced the French point guard to play 13 scoreless minutes. When Gregg Popovich called Kerr’s number with 3:44 left in the third quarter and the Spurs down 63-48, the NBA’s all-time leader in three-point field goal percentage knew what to do.
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Kerr scored 12 points in 13 minutes of action, including all four of his deep tries. San Antonio outscored Dallas, 34-9, in the final period, resulting in a 90-78 win and a ticket to the NBA Finals.
“I don’t know. Just a lot of practice over the years,” the former Arizona Wildcat answered when asked how he hit his shots despite being cold from the bench all series.
“We needed him so badly”
The Spurs were down and out after Parker was playing less than a hundred percent. Speedy Claxton, TP’s primary backup, had a solid first half but couldn’t get anything going in the third. Without any contribution from their point guards, Pop was forced to lean on the seldom-used Kerr to hit open shots.
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“We needed him so badly,” said then Spurs’ assistant coach Mike Budenholzer, per his biography Steve Kerr: A Life (H/T: Air Alamo).
The current Golden State Warriors head coach knew it was his time, but he also had enough self-awareness to know why he wasn’t anywhere near the Spurs’ playoff rotation.
“There’s a reason I don’t play a whole lot and I think we all know why that is. I’m not the greatest defender out there,” Kerr said in his biography.
Moments like Game 6 don’t happen by accident. Kerr’s readiness was the result of years of discipline which validated his belief that a team needs players who understand the game beyond the box score. That’s the edge veterans bring, even from the end of the bench.