Nevius: Warriors coach Steve Kerr always willing to speak his mind

Somewhere, Steve Kerr says, there is a photo of him with Donald Trump from the 1980s. It was back in Kerr’s first year in the NBA, when he was a little-used guard for the Phoenix Suns.

“I met him in New York City at a place called The China Club,” the Warriors coach says. “I was with three or four of my teammates, and Trump was there.”

And just to give you an idea of the kind of trendy, look-at-me night it was, Trump was with Michael Tyson, who, at the time, was systematically destroying the heavyweight boxing division.

So that’s the photo. Trump, Kerr and Tyson.

And what if you were standing there at the time, and we asked you: Which of these guys do you think we’ll be talking about in 30 years?

The New York gossip page real-estate hustler? The skinny, rookie Suns guard? Or the heavyweight champion of the world?

The answer, of course, is Kerr and Trump, who turn out to share a weird force field.

It’s Kerr’s doing. He has carved out an interesting path as international sports role model. Given a microphone and a TV presence, he leans right into touchy questions and national issues.

In group press conferences, you can see reporters’ heads prairie-dog up when he criticizes Trump. Or, more likely, advocates for a cause.

“My pet issue is gun safety,” he said last week before the Warriors left for an Eastern swing. “How is it that we still allow bump stocks? A year after that guy checked into a hotel in Las Vegas and shot 500 people? It just seems like a no-brainer.”

You could probably visit every NBA head coach and never hear an opinionated take like that.

Coaches don’t do issues. They’re supposed to be so focused they hardly notice the outside world. There’s an old story: Football coach Dick Vermeil was asked if he listened to the Rolling Stones. “No,” he said, “but my kids do. I see them reading their magazine.”

At this point, coming off back-to-back championships, Kerr has official NBA ad-lib immunity. He says whatever he wants. I don’t know if the league suits asked him to cool it with the hot takes, but if they did, he has paid no attention.

What you don’t hear are other coaches speaking up. It might be that they fear (with good reason) that in this charged political climate, it might affect their job. Or maybe they don’t have Kerr’s strong feelings.

He doesn’t dwell on it, but he sometimes mentions he lost his father to gun violence in 1984, when Kerr was 19. Malcolm Kerr, who was president of the American University of Beirut, was murdered by militants in Beirut. (Little-known fact: Steve was born in Beirut.)

So if you want qualifications for the guy who is speaking up against the NRA, Kerr has ’em.

But it is also part of the code of conduct that was passed down to him from his mentors. People who, when asked tough questions, didn’t duck.

“(Gregg) Popovich did it,” Kerr said. “And Phil Jackson.”

Each coached Kerr in his playing days, and he references them often. Popovich and Kerr, old buddies, do a little comedy routine whenever the Warriors and San Antonio play. Kerr stays in touch with Jackson, although when I asked if he was going to lead the team in a session of “mindfulness,” a Jackson meditation exercise, he said he doubted it.

Kerr’s outspoken stands have undoubtedly raised his recognition level. At a Q-and-A at the University of San Francisco last week, Kerr was asked, inevitably, if he would run for president. A reporter who was there said Kerr “demurred.”

But Kerr has an interesting perspective from inside his NBA bubble. He will spend the next eight months flying around the country on a chartered jet, slipping in and out of cities and appearing as the star attraction at arenas, where some 20,000 people cheer and boo passionately.

It’s pretty hard not to form some opinions.

“Today the country is in a very different place than 20 years ago,” Kerr said. “Before 9/11, the country seemed like a sacred place. I knew lots of conservatives. And it was OK. I could see why plenty of my teammates voted as conservatives to keep their taxes down.”

Things made sense.

“But now,” he said, “with the loss of dignity and respect, the rhetoric is terrifying.”

If there was any doubt how Kerr and the Warriors felt about Trump, they made it clear after winning the 2017 title. When some players said they would not accept an invitation to the White House, Trump tweeted that the invitation was withdrawn.

“It was like the president was trying to break up with us before we broke up with him,” Kerr joked at the time.

Despite the potential for trolling, Kerr remains active on Twitter @stevekerr. He’s mostly a re-tweeter. There are posts about gun control and progressive man-of-the-moment Beto O’Rourke. Kerr has never met the Texas senatorial candidate, but is a fan of his thoughtful, no-drama demeanor.

“I was on Twitter and I saw Trump’s talk,” he said. “It was nauseating. Just the hate.”

And, if we could take Kerr back 30 years, when that photo was being taken, what would he say to Trump? Probably something like he said this week about the way the president is spreading anger and divisiveness.

“That’s not his job,” he said. “His job is exactly the opposite.”

More to come.

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