Before he was the coach of the Golden State Warriors and won four titles, he nearly made a decision that would have altered his career for the worse.
While the Golden State Warriors’ success throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s can be attributed to Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Stephen Curry, head coach Steve Kerr has been a steady, guiding hand for the time since 2015, when Golden State won their first title.
After retiring from his playing career in 2003, Kerr joined TNT as a broadcaster, was the general manager of the Phoenix Suns, and wrote for Grantland. However, his most successful job has been as the Warriors’ head coach, although he almost passed on the opportunity.
In 2014, when the Dubs were searching for their next coach, the New York Knicks were also on the hunt. The Knicks play in the largest media market and most historic venue in the country, and Kerr was considering joining them instead of Golden State.
As a player, Kerr has five NBA titles under his belt. As a coach, he has four more. It’s safe to say he is one of the more accomplished figures in NBA history, although has he taken the Knicks’ job instead, he might be little more than a footnote.
“I don’t spend one second on that topic, largely because I already know the answer,” Kerr revealed in an interview with 95.7 The Game.
“I would have been fired within two years and I’d be doing television right now.”
Throughout the 2010s, the Knicks had a revolving carousel of head coaches. Since 2010, New York has been led by eight different head coaches, and Derek Fisher, who took over instead of Kerr before the 2014-15 season, was only there for a season and a half.
Fisher, like Kerr, was a winning role-player during his NBA career, but he couldn’t manage the personalities on the Knicks.
Heading into Kerr’s first season with the Warriors, the team was headlined by one-time All-Star Stephen Curry and a cast of mostly-unproven role players. Under Kerr, Green, Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Andrew Bogut, Shawn Livingston, and others all blossomed.
The Knicks, meanwhile, were led by an aging Carmelo Anthony in the 2014-15 season. While the Warriors had plenty of players who joyfully took a back season in the name of winning, Anthony would later refuse to come off the bench for the Oklahoma City Thunder, which helped lead to the end of his career.
Those Anthony-led Knicks rarely experienced any degree of team success, and Kerr gained a reputation in Golden State as an elite personality manager, which would have been a Herculean task had he taken the New York job instead.
