SAN FRANCISCO — Like many Americans, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr woke up on Sunday morning and was struck by the scenes that were coming across his screen from Italy. After Jack Hughes scored the golden goal that lifted the Team USA men’s hockey team to victory at the Milan Cortina Olympics, Kerr and millions of others were struck by not only the magnitude of the moment but also what happened as the group honored a fallen teammate.
Several members of Team USA skated around the ice just after the game with the jersey of Johnny Gaudreau, the NHL star who likely would have been with them on the ice had it not been for a car crash that killed him and his brother Matthew in August 2024. After Team USA received their gold medals, several other teammates ventured into the crowd to get two of Gaudreau’s children so that they could be part of the celebration and in the team picture. As Kerr, who led Team USA to gold in men’s basketball at the Paris Olympics in 2024, talked about the scene Sunday, the emotion on his face was evident.
“Incredibly emotional,” Kerr said. “And then they’re showing his parents in the stands. I knew the story, of course, but I didn’t know his family would be at the game, and that was just unbelievably emotional.”
There were Warriors ties on the opposite bench as well. Kerr and several of his players were open about how happy they were to watch Macklin Celebrini play for Team Canada. Celebrini’s father, Rick, is the Warriors’ vice president of player health and performance and has been with the organization since 2018. He left the Warriors a couple of weeks ago to be with the rest of his family in Italy. His fellow Warriors staffers got a kick out of each time the NBC cameras showed Rick in the stands with his family.
In a season that has been filled with highs and lows on the floor, the outpouring of support for Celebrini and his family was a reminder of just how important — and how wide — those bonds can be for professional teams. More than many of their NBA counterparts, the Warriors go out of their way to celebrate the accomplishments and milestones of many within their extended family.
“It’s one of the fun parts of the job,” Kerr said a day before the gold medal game. “Seeing the families be a part of it. One of my great memories of my playing career was when my kids were able to be involved. To see D.J. Green (Draymond Green’s son) as a ball boy, the other night Ean Horford (Al Horford’s son) was on our bench. He’s frequently at our facility shooting and rebounding for his dad. Honestly, it’s one of the best parts of the job.”
Too often in professional sports, fans forget that their favorite teams are made up of human beings who go through ups and downs just like everybody else. There will always be more focus paid to the players and coaches because of the forward-facing nature of their job, but a slew of people behind the scenes become part of a team’s larger family over the years.
It’s why a sellout crowd at Chase Center sang “Happy Birthday” to D.J. Green late in December when he turned 9 and then sang again when Ean Horford celebrated his 11th birthday on Sunday. It’s why Ean’s father, Al, beamed as the crowd serenaded his son. It’s the same smile D.J.’s dad, Draymond, had on his face when he watched the crowd sing to his son weeks earlier.
Those extra details are what players remember and appreciate.
“Very special,” Horford said of the gesture. “I didn’t know that that was gonna happen, and I think that it kinda got him by surprise, too. Usually, they kinda put a sign up there, and that’s kinda it, but that was really special. I felt like he was embarrassed there just ’cause they kept putting him on the Jumbotron, but it was really neat. My family and I are pretty grateful for that.”
Stephen Curry and several of his teammates cheered from the bench as the birthday rendition came to a close on Sunday. It’s sequences like these that provide the players and coaches the perspective that they need in the grind of a six-month, 82-game regular season. While there’s never a guarantee that those extra gestures make a difference on the floor, the care that is shown to the families isn’t lost on the players.
Gary Payton II grew up in the spotlight as the son of Hall of Famer Gary Payton. He’s been a member of the Warriors for most of the past six seasons and knows the organization and its fan base will go out of their way to support anyone connected to the family. He smiled while describing what it was like to see his teammates’ sons get included in that.
“Dray’s like a staple here in the Bay for sure,” Payton II said. “He was a part of the runs and everything, and so he’s always gonna be a Bay legend. They welcomed Al and Al’s family with open arms. It’s just the type of people that we have in the Bay and the type of love that they give to their team and their people.”
A faction of the Warriors fan base is frustrated by how not only this season has played out, but how the last part of Curry’s career is unfolding after the 2022 championship run. How the high draft picks haven’t panned out the way the organization hoped they would. They’ll wonder, if the culture was so strong, why would a player like Jonathan Kuminga want to leave? Why did the divorce between player and team get so messy?
Just like any family, there will be disagreements in how certain arrangements unfold and how different events play out. But what Olympic hockey, birthday celebrations and everyday interactions are reminders of is just how deep the bonds within a team can go — and how memorable they can be.
“When we finish games, every game, win or lose, we open up the doors to the family room,” Kerr said. “And the kids come flooding in, and it’s just awesome. I sit up in my office, I have a beer, and I look down, and I see these little pick-up games happening with our players’ kids, coaches’ kids, and people running around, players coming out hugging their kids. This is a special profession to be able to share with your kids, and memories for a lifetime, but also good perspective for everyone.”