Steve Kerr summed up the Golden State Warriors’ current state in two sentences.
“What we had is gone, but we’re trying to hang on to it,” Kerr told ESPN’s Wright Thompson. “I don’t know if anybody really knows if it exists anymore.”
That’s where the Warriors are in an uncertain 2026 offseason. Steph Curry and Draymond Green are still around, but in older, slower, more injury-prone versions of themselves. The team can’t stop trying to compete while they still have the greatest player in franchise history,
and Kerr himself worries he “can’t walk away.”
Kerr resigned with the team on a two-year contract that may well align him with the last years of Curry, if not also Green. The deal came nearly a month after the Warriors’ season ended with a play-in game loss, a sign of Kerr’s deep ambivalence about returning to what he called a “fading dynasty,” though he insists there’s “beauty in the struggle” of “trying to fight until the last breath.”
It’s an interesting intellectual approach for a team that’s clearly a level below the best teams in the Western Conference. They’re raging against the dying of the light with the odds and the actuarial tables against them. It’s kind of like when Curry would read critical tweets about him during halftime, only this time the primary hater is Father Time.
The marketing department asked Kerr to stop talking about this concept while they were trying to push season-ticket renewals, because apparently “dying” is not a word that gets fans excited to spend money.
“Dying Dynasty” isn’t quite as compelling as “The Last Dance,” the name for the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, who had Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, coach Phil Jackson, and a guy named Steve Kerr all on expiring deals. That team was united to win a final championship and also stick it to the team and its management that seemed insistent on breaking them up. (R.I.P. Jerry “Crumbs” Krause)
However, it seems to be the way everyone is going forward, at least for the next two seasons. Owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy seem excited about the plan, and still believe that as long as they have Curry, they can beat anyone. Maybe not for four straight series, or even a full seven-game series — the Warriors would have rested Curry, Green, and Al Horford for the first game of the playoffs had they gotten past the Phoenix Suns — but they can still be competitive.
That seems to be what’s keeping Kerr going. Realistically, it’s not about winning a fourth title. It’s about remaining competitive and having nights like the play-in win against the Los Angeles Clippers. And it seems to be about coaching Steph Curry for as long as he can and probably Draymond, too.
Given his comments about wanting to give the franchise a “clean start” after Curry is done, it sounds like Kerr is committed to being there for the messy ending. The dynasty might be dying, but Kerr is there to go down with the ship.
