Nevius: Warriors' Steve Kerr successful in dual role of coach, confidant

OAKLAND

There are probably scads of high-profile jobs that are a pleasure to have. Eccentric, world-famous painter, for instance. People would praise you all day and you could say and do crazy stuff and it would just be part of your aura.

Surely there are loads of public gigs that are enjoyable, profitable and fun.

NBA coach isn’t one of them.

Honestly, it is hard to imagine what it must be like to be Warriors coach Steve Kerr. He is psychologist, life coach and clipboard breaker. To say he needs to walk a fine line with the team is to understate the issue. The players are, as they make clear, adults.

So Kerr tells them what to do and they do it. Until they don’t. The NBA roster is a small collection of headstrong millionaires. They have their own people and their own business deals.

If one of them - God forbid if is one of your stars - decides things aren’t working, he may check out. And if you don’t like it you can read the contract, pal. Guys like Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and (soon) Klay Thompson make much more than their coach.

Kerr is a deft touch. He’s supportive, but he has an edge. During the playoffs the stories are once again being told of his confrontations with a young, strong-willed Draymond Green. The two weathered that crisis and have formed a mutual admiration society.

It is even touchier when you are dealing with a Durant or Curry. There’s an old adage for baseball managers - keep your stars happy. You can correct them, but the truly gifted players can be surprisingly thin-skinned.

In Game 4 the camera caught Kerr talking to Durant about ball movement. Kerr told a story about when he was playing with “MJ” (Michael Jordan) in the playoffs. MJ, Kerr said, was getting shots and scoring, but “we weren’t getting anything going.”

Kerr said Chicago coach Phil Jackson got Jordan to involve the other, less talented players.

“I want you to trust your teammates early,” Kerr said to Durant.

To review, he compared Durant to Jordan, one of the greatest players of all time, and also subtly reminded him that Kerr had played in championships with MJ and won rings. He has cred.

Could it have been accomplished more directly? Sure - “Kevin! Pass the ball!” But this way attempts to preserve the relationship.

Calculating the psychology of the team, and individual players, is difficult enough, but like all NBA coaches, Kerr spends an inordinate amount of time holding forth at press conferences.

On a typical game day there is a morning shootaround, with a media gaggle afterward, then a pre-game press session with podium and microphone. If the game is nationally televised, he may be directed to do a sideline interview during a timeout. And that’s followed by a postgame presser where second-guessing runs wild.

Kerr has always been a gem. Surely part of it is that he’s been a player, coach, general manager and TV talking head. He gets it.

Last week he was awarded his second Rudy Tomjanovich Award, for the coach who is most cooperative with the media. I tried to get him to talk about it - asking if he made a conscious decision to offer more than the usual cliches, but he made a joke instead.

“I was just trying to be considerate all year so I could get that trophy,” he said to laughs.

I guessing that being labeled “most cooperative with the media” is not a badge of honor in the coaching ranks. There are probably a few jabs about phonies kissing up for better press.

But Kerr isn’t out to please everyone. He’s certainly witty and entertaining. But as was mentioned when he was presented with his trophy, he’s not just a good quote, he’s “a fearless quote.”

Kerr has thoughtfully weighed in on the need for legislation to curb gun violence and has strongly disputed the policies of President Donald Trump. Not only is it hard to imagine the Giants’ Bruce Bochy saying anything like that, I doubt it would occur to anyone to ask him.

Kerr’s health has been put on a back burner this year. He resolutely refuses to discuss his chronic back problem, which was so severe last year he had to leave the team.

A calculated guess is that he is still in pain. However, I think it has improved. He came to a press conference during the season in a sweat-soaked T-shirt and said he’d been working out on the elliptical trainer.

I caught him afterward and asked if he would have done that workout a year ago.

“Probably not,” he said.

So I think he’s feeling better. But this grind has to be wearing on him. The playoffs are exciting, but parts of it have to get old. How many times can you answer the question: “How influential is Andre Iguodala to what you do?”

You have to wonder, when Kerr strolls up the sideline during a game, if he doesn’t look over at that comfy broadcaster’s chair. He’d be hired as a network analyst in a heartbeat, of course, and as he knows from experience, it is a cushy job.

At the end of the year, you have to wonder if Kerr isn’t going to take a hard look at this. I wonder if he’d consider taking a job that isn’t such a grind?

Contact C.W. Nevius at cw.nevius@pressdemocrat.com Twitter: @cwnevius.