Steve Kerr stood by his recent comments on Monday that he felt coaching last year’s horrendous Golden State Warriors team was more enjoyable than coaching the team that went to the 2019 Finals.
He isn’t, though, happy with a Bay Area media member for taking a quote of his on the subject out of context and trying to make it seem like Kerr was taking a shot at Kevin Durant.
Not one bit.
Steve Kerr ‘angry’ over ‘terribly unfair shot’
Kerr, speaking on The Ringer NBA Show, said that he “enjoyed last season, when we had the worst record in the league, more than I enjoyed that last season when we went to the Finals.”
Golden State went just 15-50 last season in a brutal attempt to back up their run to the NBA Finals — when they fell to the Toronto Raptors. Both Klay Thompson and Durant got hurt in that series, and Durant then bolted for the Brooklyn Nets.
Kerr’s point wasn’t that the Finals team was bad to coach, but rather that getting to work with a new group of young players trying to learn as much as possible was a great change of pace from the stress of making it to five straight NBA Finals.
And, of course, that makes sense.
Though Kerr didn’t mention Durant by name while making his point, Drew Shiller of NBC Sports Bay Area’s tweet about it certainly made it seem as if he was taking a shot at Durant.
Steve Kerr told @loganmmurdock he enjoyed last season (when the Warriors went 15-50) more than Kevin Durant’s final season with the Warriors.
“That last year was tough. There was a lot going on — some that you know about and some that you don’t. That was very difficult.”
— Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) March 22, 2021
Durant thought so, too.
So Kerr, ahead of Tuesday’s matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers, clarified his comments unprompted — and called out Shiller by name for what he saw as “a terribly unfair shot.”
Steve Kerr, unprompted, brings up a podcast comment of his that went viral today involving KD’s final season compared to last season. Said he is “angry” about the way it was contextualized.
Part 2 pic.twitter.com/GjECpdORg6
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) March 23, 2021
“I did a podcast a few nights ago with Logan Murdock, and I mentioned during the podcast that last season, in which we had the worst record in the league, was more enjoyable from a coaching standpoint than the previous season when we lost in the Finals,” Kerr said. “The context was, basically, that after the five-year run that we were on, that fifth year was just an absolute bear. It was the stress level, two season-ending injuries during the Finals, DeMarcus also had a serious injury that took him out of the playoffs for six weeks. We had all kinds of stress.
“The whole point of the conversation was the stress of the five-year run compared to coaching a team of young guys that doesn’t win many games but is eager to learn. I made the comment, sort of offhanded, that last year was more enjoyable than that previous season. That was it, that was my comment.
“Drew Shiller decided to tweet today that Steve Kerr said he enjoyed last season more than Kevin Durant’s last year with the Warriors.
“OK, so I want to make this extremely clear. If you want to actually get the story accurate, I encourage you to listen to the podcast before we sort of take this story into offshoots and use that as my quote because that is the furthest thing from the truth. It was a terribly unfair shot.
“Completely taking something out of context to the point where people are going to read it and think that that was my quote. You guys have all been very fair to me over the years and I rarely have any complaints. I know that I am fair game for criticism anytime we play a game. I’m going to make bad decisions that you can criticize. I’m going to do plenty of things that you can criticize and I deserve it.
“But to take that comment and put it into a tweet and send it into the universe was so irresponsible and damaging, and I’m angry. And I know what’s going to happen. I know this is going to be taken out into the morning shows and people are going to be talking about it and they’re gonna to use what they think is a quote that is actually that is something that’s completely made up. I’m not happy. I think it’s wrong. Again, I try to be candid. I try to share everything so that our fans know what our team is going through. What I’m going through. We like to share our story. It’s a big part of promoting our team. So, this is really concerning for me. It’s part of modern media maybe, but it’s dead wrong, and I’m upset about it.”
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