SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Steve Kerr is giving it another go with Golden State.
Kerr has reached an agreement in principle on a two-year contract to continue coaching the Warriors, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations. Kerr still must sign his new deal, the person told The Associated Press on Saturday night, speaking on condition of anonymity because the contract must be finalized.
The Warriors missed the playoffs for the second time in three years, earning the 10th seed in the Western Conference and eventually losing at Phoenix in the play-in tournament.
Kerr’s 12-year coaching run with the franchise has featured four championships and a stretch of six straight NBA Finals appearances alongside Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. Kerr shared an embrace with those two stars near the end of the loss in Phoenix, saying afterward he knew it could be their final time together.
The Warriors were 37-45 this season while dealing with numerous injuries, including losing Jimmy Butler to a season-ending right knee injury in January and Curry’s 27-game absence with a right knee injury of his own.
ESPN first reported Kerr’s new contract.
Kerr, 60, got his first coaching job in 2014-15 and immediately guided Golden State to the franchise’s first title in 40 years. The Warriors would then begin the next season with a record 24-0 start without him as assistant Luke Walton led the way as Kerr missed the initial 43 games as his team went on to a record 73 victories. Kerr took a leave of absence to recover from debilitating complications following two back surgeries, then missed time again in 2017 with Mike Brown filling in as Kerr underwent a procedure to deal with a spinal fluid leak.
Green had predicted on his podcast once the season ended that Kerr wouldn’t return.
Throughout his coaching career, Kerr has used his platform to speak out against gun violence and social injustice among other prominent issues. He lost his father, Malcolm, president of the American University of Beirut, when he was murdered in Beirut when Kerr was 18 and a freshman at the University of Arizona.
In March 2018, Kerr took part in the Oakland March for Our Lives. Earlier that same month, he joined Democratic Congressmen Ro Khanna and Mike Thompson — then-chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force — and students from throughout the South Bay during a town hall at Newark Memorial High School to discuss gun violence in schools and cheered the efforts of youth nationwide.
Kerr has said it isn’t hard to do double duty as a basketball coach and a voice as a public figure for those who don’t have one.
“I think in some ways the balance is presented to us, given what’s happening around the country,” Kerr said. “I know that when I played, players and coaches were never — maybe not never — rarely asked about politics and voting.”
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