Kendra AndrewsESPN
SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr tested positive for COVID-19, the team announced Monday evening.
He entered the league’s health and safety protocols and wasn’t on the bench for Monday’s 101-98 win in Game 4 over the Memphis Grizzlies.
Associate head coach Mike Brown assumed coaching duties.
“Obviously there’s butterflies, because again you’re going into the game with a certain mindset and it’s a big game. Every game that we play at this point in the year, it’s huge,” said Brown, who agreed Sunday to become the Sacramento Kings new coach after this postseason run. “So to have that kind of thrown at you, you’ve got to switch gears because I know what my responsibilities are going in as Mike Brown the assistant coach, and it changes.”
But Brown has done this previously. He led the Warriors to an 11-0 record during the 2017 title run when Kerr was out dealing with debilitating symptoms from complications of back surgery two years earlier.
“His head coaching record for a Warrior playoff game I think is undefeated,“ Klay Thompson said. “We did miss Steve a lot, just his voice, his presence, but we’ve been here before, 2017 when Mike took over and we rolled off a lot of wins, so I reflected on that a lot.”
Kerr had been wearing a mask for the past several days before his positive test on Monday. It’s unclear if he will travel with the Warriors on Tuesday to Memphis for Wednesday’s Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals.
The Warriors now lead the series 3-1.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
