It’s been nearly two weeks since Steve Kerr huddled with Steph Curry and Draymond Green in the waning moments of the Golden State Warriors season-ending loss to the Phoenix Suns. Kerr seemed intent to keep the sentiments that he uttered to his Hall of Fame-bound players a secret, though Curry, Green, and the league’s microphones had other plans.
In the aftermath of that loss, Kerr said that he would take “a week or two” to decide his future, and choose between a hiatus from the sidelines, or a 13th
season at the helm of one of the sport’s model franchises.
No one could fully read the tea leaves, but in the first week it sure started to feel like Kerr was going to spend 2026 Opening Night on a coach in his Southern California home, legs kicked up, and a cold one in his hand. A few days after the loss, Green said “it felt like that was it,” when speaking about the moment he shared with Curry and Kerr. Warriors insider Monte Poole said he felt the odds were slim that Kerr would return.
And then, of course, there’s the historical precedent. Usually when someone takes a step back and a few weeks to evaluate their future, it results in a change of direction. The “take a week or two” for a coach is like couples therapy in a relationship: it’s doing due diligence for something that, more often than not, already has a predetermined fate.
But that might not be the case in Kerr’s situation, and it feels like the tide is starting to turn, and the momentum has shifted towards a Kerr return. An article published on Wednesday by ESPN’s Shams Charania, Ramona Shelburne, and Anthony Slater reports that Kerr met with Joe Lacob and Mike Dunleavy Jr. for a few hours on Monday, and that the trio will meet again next week. That points to something fairly obvious: if Kerr wanted to leave, he would have done so already.
The ESPN report, and others in recent days, paints the picture of a team that is fairly unified in their desire to re-sign Kerr, and a coach who just isn’t sure what he wants to do (ESPN described it as “Kerr will take a previously planned golf trip to close out this week as those around him continue to describe Kerr as torn about his own side of the choice”).
Some of his conflict, admittedly, might stem from those conversations with Lacob and Dunleavy. Reports have suggested that the Warriors not only want Kerr to sign on for multiple years to give the team long-term stability amid roster retooling, but also would like him to modernize his offensive scheme, work more closely with the analytics department, and revamp his coaching staff. Kerr is too much of a company man to force his own employment against anyone’s wishes, so deciding whether or not he wants to coach under those parameters might be the biggest thing for him right now.
For now, we wait. The longer this goes on, the greater the odds of Kerr returning for a few more years, and presumably lining up his retirement with Curry and Green’s. The fact that his decision hasn’t been made, and the fact that he’s meeting with the team a second time, suggests that he does, indeed, still love and enjoy coaching. Ultimately, that seems the factor that’s most likely to win out in the end.
