Exclusive - Steve Kerr: Why I'm 'excited' to coach Team USA at Paris 2024

There isn’t much that Steve Kerr hasn’t done in his three-and-a-half decades in the NBA.

He won five rings as a player, four more as a coach, and was a general manager as well as a commentator.

He played alongside Michael Jordan and played for Gregg Popovich and Phil Jackson. He currently coaches Steph Curry, the best shooter of all-time who has transformed the modern game.

But as if he had to tick off another box or add another line to an already more than impressive CV, Kerr succeeded his mentor Popovich as head coach of USA Basketball for next year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

And he’s well up for it.

“That's one of those decisions that for you it's automatic”, Kerr said in an interview with Olympics.com during the NBA Japan Games, where his Golden State Warriors took on the Washington Wizards in a couple of preseason games.

“You can't say no to that type of opportunity.

“I mean, it's it's not like during the Warriors’ season that I'm spending a ton of time with Team USA. We're doing some things behind the scenes but it's not that hard to to do both jobs.

“I’m excited about it. I love the people on our staff - Sean Ford and the whole group with USA Basketball. Jim Tooley, Grant Hill, they're amazing people and I'm excited about that job.

“Obviously next summer's World Cup and then the following summer of the Olympics. So it's very exciting to be part of that”.

My unique Tokyo 2020 experience

No stranger to being expected to win all the time having been in numerous championship environments, the former three-point threat calls it “a great honour” to be leading USA. Kerr is looking forward to working with a new wave of players for Paris.

Last summer in Tokyo, he was on the bench next to Popovich as an assistant when the United States won their fourth consecutive gold medal at the Games.

Kerr described the Olympic bubble experience as simply “amazing”, one that certainly enhanced his decision to take the USA job.

“Obviously very unique given that the pandemic was in full effect. There were so many layers to it”, he said.

“From a coaching standpoint, to be in the hotel for 19 straight days with our coaching staff and our team not being able to leave the hotel, it made it a really unique basketball experience.

“Just every single day when we gathered and we talked basketball, we talked life. It was a really special time with an amazing group of people”.

Kerr said he was glad to be back in Japan with the Warriors because this time, he had an opportunity to fully take in the country and for the fans to take in some good basketball.

“We were all very sad that the Japanese people couldn't show the beauty of the country to the world,” the 57-year-old somberly said.

“We felt the service here, the quality of the human experience is so important and you can feel it from anywhere you go. You just feel this this great sense that you're being taken care of.

“So it’s the ultimate irony; the Olympics are about the host country showing the world their hospitality. Where in the world is the hospitality any better than Japan? And then nobody can come because of Covid.

“It was so sad. It was terrible. We talked about it all the time. We felt so bad for the country”.

Lord of the rings?

Following Tokyo last season, Kerr went on to win his ninth NBA title, beating the Boston Celtics in six games in the Finals.

The Warriors, after two years of struggle with injuries to their core of Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, were back.

“I think every single championship is special and unique for different reasons”, Kerr recalled.

“What made this past year really exciting and special was that it was somewhat unexpected. I don't think most people picked us to win the championship. We weren't even sure ourselves if we could do it.

“So to get on a great run and to finish it off and win the title was an amazing feeling”.

All was well at the Warriors camp during the Japan Games.

Golden State seemed to be soaking up the trip, enjoying the Japanese fans, food and hospitality. There was an air around them, having the camaraderie and swagger of a team coming off a championship season.

But then came The Punch.

Two weeks before the start of the new season, Green socked Jordan Poole during practice in a inexplicable fit. A leaked video of Green striking his smaller team-mate with a hard right went viral.

The altercation has become the dominant - if not only - subject of talk surrounding the Warriors now, despite a lot of preseason positives, like a healthy James Wiseman; the dependability of sophomores Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga; and new additions Donte DiVincenzo and JaMychal Green fitting in well.

Kerr described it as the “biggest crisis” since he began coaching the Warriors eight years ago.

Can he navigate these rough waters? When asked how it felt to have the bull’s eye on their backs again for the 2022-23 campaign, Kerr unknowingly portended the shock that was to come at Golden State.

“It feels great to be defending champs. There's a sense of confidence that we didn't have last year.

“The flip side of that is, is there enough urgency? You know, you can be too confident. And if you lose your head, you're in big trouble because the league is just filled with great talent.

“So we have to find that edge. Use the confidence correctly and wisely - and still play with that edge and that appropriate fear that you better be ready because these teams are pretty, pretty good coming after us”.