Before they bonded on the court, Stephen Curry and Steve Kerr bonded on the green.
In an interview with ESPN’s Anthony Slater published Friday, the Warriors’ star guard and coach revealed how a golf outing shortly after Kerr was hired in 2014 helped the duo form the chemistry that ignited Golden State’s dynasty.
As Slater writes, Kerr felt he needed to connect with Curry, the team’s star, who had voiced support for the Warriors’ previous coach Mark Jackson before his firing in May 2014. That connection came when he and Golden State CEO Joe Lacob met Curry and his father, Dell, for a two-on-two match at Pebble Beach.
“That’s when I really went into my spiel,” Kerr told Slater of his conversation with Curry between holes. “My whole thing was: ‘I’m here to help you build on the foundation that Mark has already built.’ I told him they were the fourth-ranked defense. Mark changed the culture and got them serious about two-way basketball. He established that. I said, ‘I’m not here to do anything other than help you build on the foundation that’s already there.’ And it was genuine.”
Those words resonated with Curry.
“It helped that [Kerr] is a former player,” Curry told Slater. “It helped that you heard him talk on TV for years. It helped that I knew he was a GM [with the Phoenix Suns] even though that job didn’t go great. It helped that he wasn’t trying to blow everything up.”
At the time, the Warriors were in trade discussions with the Minnesota Timberwolves on a potential blockbuster: Klay Thompson for Minnesota forward Kevin Love. Kerr, as Curry told Slater, was “very pro-Klay” when the subject came up on the course. In keeping with Kerr’s message of continuity to Curry, the team eventually chose to stick with its foundation and keep Thompson.
It was a productive day at the links, even if it featured something that would prove rare for Curry over the coming years: a defeat.
“[Kerr and Lacob] beat us,” Curry told Slater, shaking his head. “Joe played solid.”
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