Steve Kerr’s Olympic experience didn’t come until his second act. And he built a significant resume out of it in the background too. Then the 2024 Olympics put him front and center, still on the sidelines, but wide open to scrutiny. And scrutiny is putting it lightly. Kerr’s decisions were dissected and compared to his predecessors. Especially when he didn’t play the reigning NBA champion. Regardless, the Warriors coach stood by his decisions. That process of sticking to his guns began from the moment he got that call to Team USA.
Over a year since then, Kerr was on the Glue Guys podcast where Shane Battier & Co. asked how it felt to not only have a callback to Team USA but this time not as an assistant coach. More specifically, “When you got asked to be the Olympic coach, was there any part of you that was not only enthusiastic but maybe a little nervous?”
Kerr didn’t hold back and conveyed his feelings in very explicit terms. “There’s a huge part of me that was nervous about it. But that was that was way better than the thought of, ‘Wow, they asked me to be the Olympic coach and I said no. What a p—y.’” So yeah, avoiding that ‘coward’ label was a very big motivation behind accepting the Team USA head coaching job.
As Battier put it, there’s a lot of pressure on Team USA to win. Especially since the Dream Team’s inception with his former teammates, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen and also since players largely blamed Larry Brown for the 2004 Olympics disappointment. Kerr has seen the pressure a head coach of Team USA faces firsthand.
He was the assistant coach of Team USA from 2017 to 2021. Significantly, he learnt the ropes of managing an international team under his former Spurs coach, Gregg Popovich under his gold-medalist Team USA in the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. That experience came very handy for Kerr’s biggest role in the Olympics yet.
Steve Kerr’s Olympic journey came full circle
In December 2021, well before the Paris Olympics roster was finalized, the Team USA men’s basketball team already had its head coach. Popovich’s then-assistant, Steve Kerr was formally picked for the job a season before he’d lead Stephen Curry and the Warriors to their fourth championship together.
The time following that announcement was seemingly quiet. But not for Kerr. Along with handling his coaching duties in San Francisco, he was preparing himself for the international stage with some incredible experts.
“I think there’s an incredible responsibility that I spoke with Coach K about it. He was really helpful. Pop, you know, I was with Pop in Tokyo as an assistant. So both guys were really helpful to prepare me for that dynamic.”
Not only did Kerr have Popovich to rely on, he had the Redeem Team legend, Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski to help. Besides them, he had longtime Team USA execs, Sean Ford and Jim Tooley among others. And also another reliable old friend.
In 1992, a young Steve Kerr joined the ‘USA Basketball Select Team.’ This second string team was handpicked to help the star-studded Dream Team prepare for the Olympics. If urban legends are to be believed, this squad really got under the skin of Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. This squad of collegiate players also included future NBA stars Grant Hill, Chris Webber and Penny Hardaway.
Today, Grant Hill takes his 19-season NBA resume to serve as the managing director of Team USA. He was one of the people who helped Kerr adapt to this role and got a special shoutout on The Glue Guys for his help.
“They’re so supportive and collaborative that from day one, you never feel like, ‘oh, s–t, it’s on me,’ even though you’re the head coach and, you know, it is… you really feel like it’s the group.” And though a lot has been said about Kerr failing to take the team past fourth place in the 2023 FIBA World Cup and for underplaying star players in Paris, he takes pride in the experience.
“They’re an amazing organization and every coach who’s ever been through there, it just raves about USA basketball for a good reason.” Can’t argue there.
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