{"id":726921,"date":"2026-05-06T05:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T05:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/726921\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T05:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T05:30:21","slug":"a-steve-kerr-warriors-breakup-would-be-a-massive-mistake-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/726921\/","title":{"rendered":"A Steve Kerr-Warriors breakup would be a massive mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s one thing I feel confident about when it comes to the inscrutable Steve Kerr-Golden State Warriors showdown<\/a>: No one wants to walk away.<\/a><\/p>\n

If Kerr really had no interest in coaching the Warriors moving forward, he\u2019d have said so by now and be down in San Diego, enjoying life. Maybe he\u2019d even hop on ESPN a night or two a week for an ungodly hourly rate. Sounds like a pretty sweet situation.<\/p>\n

And yet here we are.<\/p>\n

If the Warriors \u2014 led by Joe and Kirk Lacob and, to a lesser degree, general manager Mike Dunleavy \u2014 really felt like someone else was better served to coach Steph Curry\u2019s team (and make no mistake, that is a non-negotiable aspect of this whole thing), they\u2019d have told Kerr to enjoy that life.<\/p>\n

And yet here we are.<\/p>\n

Because deep down, both parties know what is best; what is right<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now they\u2019re just clearing the air and setting some new parameters after what was an exceptionally passive-aggressive and in no way successful season.<\/p>\n

To be forthright: It\u2019s my understanding that until a press release is issued saying that Kerr has a new contract, this thing could go sideways.<\/p>\n

But the way I see it, if Kerr had his druthers, he\u2019d come back. It\u2019s on the Warriors to not drive him away.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s easier said than done, because Kerr \u2014 as is his right as a four-time champion coach \u2014 has his preferred way of doing things.<\/p>\n

And the Warriors\u2019 front office \u2014 namely the Lacobs \u2014 have their own opinions as well.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not kid ourselves about the ridiculous dynamic at play here. The front office thinks it can build a self-sustaining, perpetual-motion machine post-Curry. Kerr thinks he\u2019s the only one keeping this engine, which is on its last legs, from bursting into flames and leaving everyone stuck on the side of the road.<\/p>\n

The truth lives in the messy middle, but neither side wants to admit they need the other just as desperately today as they did more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Because the Lacobs might own the Warriors, but Kerr is as responsible as anyone for making them what they are.<\/p>\n

Both sides are right, both sides are wrong.<\/p>\n

But I think Kerr would regret leaving Curry and Draymond Green right now, and I think the Warriors would never be forgiven for letting Kerr walk out the door.<\/p>\n

Who could possibly be a better coach for next season\u2019s Warriors?<\/p>\n

Curry is the sun, the moon, and the stars of this franchise. Whoever coaches him isn\u2019t just drawing up after-timeout plays; they\u2019re managing a living legend\u2019s legacy. You don\u2019t hand that job to some 30-something analytics whiz who thinks basketball is played on a spreadsheet.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know guys, shoot more 3s?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sure, Kerr\u2019s stubborn insistence on playing the game his way might be holding this team back in 2026. It might not be of the times \u2014 it\u2019s asking too much of young players who can\u2019t handle anything more intricate than a high pick and roll where three guys stand around and watch on offense.<\/p>\n

But so long as Curry is on the team, shouldn\u2019t the Warriors operate the system that emphasizes him? He is, after all, the reason the Chase Center rafters aren\u2019t empty. In fact, isn\u2019t he the reason the Chase Center exists at all?<\/p>\n

Sure, the grass was, in fact, greener in 2014 when the Warriors fired Mark Jackson and hired Kerr.<\/p>\n

Do the Lacobs really think they\u2019re in a similar situation 12 years later?<\/p>\n

Kerr knows they don\u2019t have a viable alternative.<\/p>\n

All these clandestine leaks and glowing profiles? They\u2019re leverage in this negotiation. The same way his lame-duck year put the screws to the Warriors\u2019 front office over this past season.<\/p>\n

It all comes back to one simple truth: Kerr is a competitor. This is a guy who took punches from Michael Jordan and can shatter a clipboard into splinters.<\/p>\n

And he knows you don\u2019t trade the adrenaline of the sidelines for a headset and a telestrator unless you are explicitly kicked out.<\/p>\n

You certainly don\u2019t kick up your feet when Curry is still doing everything in his power to ensure his legs still have enough lift to carry a team.<\/p>\n

So, here we are. A billionaire owner and a millionaire coach engaging in a high-stakes game of chicken, both pretending they have better places to be; that they could do better; that they don\u2019t still need each other.<\/p>\n

The Lacobs aren\u2019t arsonists, and Kerr isn\u2019t cold enough to walk away from a job that\u2019s not quite done.<\/p>\n

The shadowboxing will continue, but these two should figure out a way to stay together.<\/p>\n

It\u2019d be a massive mistake if they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s one thing I feel confident about when it comes to the inscrutable Steve Kerr-Golden State Warriors showdown:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,164,155,156,165,6,157,83445,66,198,158,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":["post-726921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-wizards","tag-basketball","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-inside-sports","tag-keywee","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nba","tag-pm-report","tag-social-alert","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-warriors-hq","tag-washington","tag-washington-wizards","tag-washingtonwizards","tag-wizards"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116525991457921719","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}