The Golden State Warriors ended their season with a 111-96 play-in loss to the Phoenix Suns on Friday night. In the closing seconds, Steve Kerr subbed Stephen Curry and Draymond Green out of the game, pulled them close, and told them he loved them. Many in the building sensed it felt like a goodbye.
The latest update suggests it may well have been.
Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times posted on Monday that a source described as very close to Kerr said the 60-year-old has known for weeks that he is done coaching the Warriors.
What the Latest Reports Reveal
Kerr spoke on Friday of his intention to take a week or two before sitting down with owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. to discuss what comes next. His public comments left the door open. Meanwhile, the latest reporting suggests that door may have already been closed in his own mind.
According to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole, multiple league sources indicate Kerr is not expected to return barring a significant change of heart. Rather than money being the deciding factor, one source told Poole the situation runs deeper than that.
“They could offer Steve $25 million a year,” the source said, “and I doubt that alone would make a difference.”
Two sources indicated that any change of heart would require Kerr having renewed faith in his role as the franchise shifts toward the future. For now, the general belief among those close to the situation is that a decision will come in days rather than weeks.
Green addressed the late-game moment on his podcast recently, admitting what it felt like from his perspective.
“It felt like that was it,” Green said.
What This Season Did to Kerr
GettySteve Kerr, Golden State Warriors.
Kerr arrived at training camp this past fall with a clear mindset. He wanted one more season to prove the Warriors could still compete at a high level and dismissed any talk of a contract extension early on.
“I’m very comfortable just going into this season with a year left,” Kerr said last September. “Let’s just see how it is at the end of the year.”
What followed was one of the most difficult seasons of his tenure. Jimmy Butler missed 44 games, 38 after tearing his ACL in January. Curry missed 39 games with runner’s knee. Al Horford missed 37. Kerr used 43 different starting lineups and seemingly endless rotations trying to find something that worked. Nothing did consistently.
Kerr had hoped for a season that ended in smiles. That vision never materialized. The widespread belief, per Poole, is that he is uninterested in an encore to what he hoped would already be an encore.
What Kerr’s Departure Would Mean for the Warriors
GettySteph Curry and Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors have won four NBA championships together.
Kerr became the Warriors’ head coach in 2014 and transformed the franchise almost immediately. In his first four seasons alone, Golden State won three championships and reached five consecutive Finals, before claiming a fourth title in 2022 against the Boston Celtics. Along the way, he recently became the fourth-quickest coach in NBA history to reach 600 wins, finishing with a 604-353 record.
The dynasty he built was defined by innovation. The Death Lineup. The movement offense. The culture of unselfishness that made Golden State must-watch basketball for nearly a decade. Whatever comes next for this franchise, it begins without the architect of all of it.
Meanwhile, Green himself faces uncertainty over his own future, with the possibility that two of the franchise’s most iconic figures could be walking out the door in the same offseason.
Final Word for the Warriors
Kerr wanted one more year. He got it. It did not go the way he hoped.
The official word on his future could come this week. Whatever that word is, the Warriors are entering an offseason unlike any they have faced in over a decade.
Dub Nation is bracing for it.
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