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00:00That Steve Kerr was on with us yesterday, we'll play a bunch of the sound, and I'm going to say
00:06this in like, A, the most respectful way, but B, I want to provide some context.
00:12If you were with us yesterday in the 5 o'clock hour, you know that we got to 5 o
00:16'clock and we're like, Steve might be on, Steve might not be on, we're actually not sure.
00:22I think, and then he was, I think Steve might have been out and about, I don't know what he
00:27was doing, I don't know.
00:30He was in the car, for sure.
00:31So I think he might have just gotten to his phone and the Warriors were like, hey, you want to
00:36do it now?
00:36And he was probably like, sure.
00:39Yep.
00:42And I thought that Steve sounded a little, just kind of, and I don't mean tired as if Steve wanted
00:52to go to bed, I just thought that Steve sounded a little, eh, I'd probably rather be doing something else
01:01right now.
01:01Yeah, maybe a little over it, so to speak.
01:03That's a good way to put it, and maybe, maybe that's what he's always thinking in the back of his
01:08head whenever he comes on with Willie and Debbie, or when he does a post-game presser, or whatever.
01:15Certainly, when he got to a point where he kept getting asked about Jonathan Kaminga, like he made no bones
01:20about that.
01:22Like, really, does this, so this is just what we're going to do for forever?
01:26All roads, Steve.
01:27So you just said, though, that you, you, you see something on the court.
01:33It was more at the dais, honestly.
01:36It was more at the press conference.
01:37For the first time, I looked at him, and I thought, whatever, he's 60, I'm 57, I'm not going to
01:43age shame him.
01:45He's only three years older than me, but watching him after they blew the eight-point lead, I looked at
01:51him and thought, he looks old.
01:52For the first time, I could see that the fatigue of this, the fatigue of everything, and, you know, before
02:00you get too deep into it, I was looking at his history in the association.
02:04It's now 38 straight years.
02:07Player, assistant coach, GM, broadcaster, now coach, he hasn't really had a year to just do nothing.
02:17It's a lot.
02:18Well, and also, so let's take yesterday now.
02:21Yesterday, they've, they've played on back-to-back nights.
02:24Those were in two different cities.
02:26There's no violin that we're playing here.
02:30They get very, very well compensated to travel around.
02:33But let's just think about the last week or so.
02:37It was three games and four nights.
02:41Okay?
02:42As you said, he's 60 years old.
02:44Okay?
02:44So you take a, you take a plane flight from the Bay Area to Oklahoma.
02:48Oklahoma, you do a game in Oklahoma City, and then you fly after that game to Salt Lake City.
02:56You get one day of rest, but it was probably a plane flight day.
02:59So you fly from Oklahoma City to Salt Lake City.
03:02And then the next day, you play a game there.
03:06And then that game, that was a night game.
03:08That was a 6 o'clock Utah game.
03:10So Utah time, by the time you're done with that game, your obligations, you get your stuff, you're on the
03:15plane.
03:15The plane comes back to San Francisco.
03:17I'm going to guess that they landed it, I don't know, 2.33 in the morning.
03:22Okay?
03:232.33 in the morning, you find your way back to your house, you grab some shut-eye as much
03:28as you can,
03:28and then somewhere in the late morning hour, you grab some food, you head over to Chase Center.
03:35You got another basketball game.
03:36You play the Chicago Bulls.
03:38By the way, you lose all three of those games now.
03:42You lose all three of those games, and two of them in rather frustrating fashion.
03:50And then you have a day off.
03:53And you are lucky enough, you are blessed enough to get to spend 24 minutes talking to you and me.
04:02Yeah.
04:03Lucky guy.
04:05Yeah.
04:06Yeah.
04:07Just looking at the numbers.
04:0827 years as a player or a coach, and if you assume 41 road games a year, which is not
04:14right because there were lockouts
04:16and there was COVID and whatnot, but just using that general number, and that doesn't account for playoffs either,
04:22that's 1,107 road games as a player and as a coach.
04:27So you're talking about flights, and how many miles has he flown just in his life in the association?
04:34Probably close to a half a million or more.
04:38I don't know about you, but I fly to L.A.
04:40I need a nap.
04:41Oh, well, flying sucks.
04:43It just does.
04:44Well, that's part of, I think, the fatiguing nature of what he does.
04:47I'm told they have a nice plane, but still.
04:50Yeah, flying sucks.
04:51Still, you're 34,000 feet in the air.
04:54But I'm noticing something else.
04:55What did Steve talk about constantly during these three or four days?
05:03Every time.
05:04Now, part of it was because he kept getting asked about it, but think about this now.
05:09You lose to Shea Gilgis-Alexander, and he goes into a press conference and goes, look, nothing
05:17against Shea, but the league has allowed this.
05:22And Shea's really good at getting pretzel arms.
05:27He's not trying to score.
05:28He's pretzel arming.
05:31And that's a foul because that's what the league is doing.
05:34Now, earlier, before the game, he had been like, you know, it would be really great is
05:40if we just all collectively did less of this.
05:43It would be super awesome if we did less basketball.
05:48We're running too far.
05:50We're traveling too much.
05:51The pace is too much.
05:53The league won't like it when I say this, but this is too much.
05:57So you've got league problem one before the game, followed by league problem two after
06:03the game.
06:04One of our texters, very, very, this is very adept, 510 texted in against the Bulls.
06:11There was a play where a mic, the TV mics were hot, and you could hear Steve Kerr, he
06:18was mad at the refs because it was a Josh Giddey drive, and he was pushing off, and Kerr
06:26was mad at the ref, but the argument with the ref lasted about whatever, seven seconds,
06:32and then you could hear Steve, as he walked back to the bench, said it three times.
06:36That's a league problem.
06:38That's a league problem.
06:40He said it like three times.
06:43Now, before that game, he did the same thing.
06:48By the way, 72 games would just be amazing.
06:50Yeah.
06:52So, on his mind, for four days, it's just league problem, league problem, and there's
06:59too much, too much league stuff, too many, too many games, too many.
07:04Then he comes on with us.
07:06We did ask him.
07:07Now, you don't have your star players, but how you doing, by the way?
07:12Every year is different as a coach, and you adapt and adjust.
07:16So, I enjoy it.
07:18I'm having a great time this year.
07:20I'd love to win those games and get into the playoffs, but it's all a great challenge,
07:25and I love our guys, and we just got to keep plugging away.
07:29I feel like he has said this a number of times, but my sense is that people don't believe him.
07:36Well, he doesn't say it with the exuberance that you would normally expect.
07:40Like, if you ask me, when I show up to work, and you say,
07:43Hey, Dips, how you doing?
07:44Hey!
07:46Good.
07:47I'm great.
07:48Yeah, I'm doing great.
07:49I mean, you don't sound great.
07:51I don't know if Steve sounds like that.
07:53Not quite, and I'm over-dramatizing it for the audience, but.
07:56Pass Spencer, like, what do you want me to do over here?
07:57I was thinking about Tiger Woods, you know, and his, my swing looks good.
08:02It feels good.
08:03I like my chances.
08:04And Tiger, he would say the same things over and over, but.
08:06Well, Tiger's super awk.
08:08I mean, he's just, yeah.
08:10But Steve, like, even at that is, you know, it's almost like he was trying to convince himself how much
08:14he's enjoying this.
08:16I don't know.
08:17Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but.
08:19No, I think a lot of people see it.
08:21Now, here's my read.
08:23I actually think that Steve Kerr, he really is still enjoying being the coach, and he is still really enjoying
08:34the fleeting basketball moments.
08:36He has stated that he will never leave Steph Curry, and we're told that that celebration in Houston, the post
08:43-game locker room,
08:44and this is just exactly a week ago tonight, that that post-game celebration in the locker room was the
08:50happiest the group has been all year long.
08:53I think Steve's fine with that.
08:55But what you just detailed, 38 straight years.
08:59But forget 38 straight years and arrive at now.
09:03And I think this is also normal for someone who's 60 years old.
09:06It might be normal for people who are turning 50 years old.
09:08I feel it in myself a little bit.
09:10You turn 50, you turn 60, and you start looking around at the world, and you're like, what are we
09:18doing?
09:19What is this?
09:21What is this load management, shade foul merchant?
09:27What is this?
09:28We're constant three-point baskets.
09:31What are we doing here?
09:33And that's just, it's natural.
09:35It's a natural sort of cycle.
09:37And if I'm Steve Kerr, and I've been doing this with the same people on the same team, listening to
09:44the same fans,
09:46talking to the same radio station, and the same beat writers,
09:50here we go, okay, Monty Poole, Nick Friedle.
09:53I think that's what we're, I think the basketball part is fine.
09:56I think it's all the other stuff that we're reading that Steve's like, I could do without this.
10:01No doubt, and I can only speak from my own experience as a high school varsity coach,
10:06and when you're a coach at that level, the games are the fun.
10:10And I was a volleyball coach for a long time, and you get to game day, and you have the
10:15coin toss,
10:15and then you get ready to start the match.
10:18That's fun.
10:18And then after the match, you've got a couple players who are disgruntled,
10:22and maybe a parent who has to talk to you because little Johnny can't be at practice tomorrow.
10:27And then you've got administration, and you have to set up the bus for the next day,
10:30and you've got to talk to the trainers.
10:31And in the offseason, you've got to make the schedule, and you've got to do all the practices,
10:35and make sure the gym's available because, you know, the women's basketball team's in the playoffs,
10:39and so now you can't be in the gym because they might win.
10:42And it's all the extra stuff that starts to grind on you.
10:45And for Steve Kerr, it's media availability is almost every day.
10:49It's answering questions that, you know, you really can't answer.
10:52Like, hey, how's Steph's knees? How's he doing?
10:55Well, guys, you know it's a medical question. Don't ask me that.
10:57But he doesn't answer it that way because he's all class.
11:00But it's all the other stuff, I think, that wears him down.
11:03Well, look, I really do. I wonder.
11:06I mean, basically what we're talking about is burnout.
11:08Yeah.
11:09Real quick, you're listening to 95.7 The Game, KGMC FM and HD1 San Francisco,
11:14Odyssey Sports Station, and the home of the Golden State Warriors and Valkyries,
11:18always live on the free Odyssey app, coming to you live from the Laughing Monk Studios.
11:22Okay, I want to explore all sides of this.
11:24I really am in an exploratory mood on this.
11:26What if it's us?
11:28Me and you?
11:29No.
11:30No.
11:31And I don't mean the media, and I don't mean the fans.
11:36I just mean what if we're now viewing, what if it's our eyeballs and our ears?
11:43What if we're receiving everything different and seeing it through a different set of glasses
11:52because the Warriors aren't winning nearly as many games and their outlook doesn't look as exciting and rosy?
11:58What if it's out, like, perception, basically?
12:02I like that, and I want to add this to it.
12:05It's also the idea that it's ending.
12:08Like, Steph is near the end, and Draymond's near the end, and Jimmy's only signed for one more year,
12:13so therefore, Steve must be at the end, too.
12:16And so I do think that the fact that all these guys are nearing the end of their run,
12:22it's natural to look at Steve and think the same thing.
12:25You know what I mean?
12:27Like, maybe we're lumping in it.
12:29Maybe he wants to coach 10 more years.
12:30Well, he, so this is what's interesting.
12:33The words that are coming out of his mouth do not match what it sounds like so many people are
12:37feeling
12:38and thinking when they listen.
12:40He's saying, I want to keep coaching.
12:43I can't imagine anyone, I can't imagine doing anything else.
12:47I'll never leave Steph Curry.
12:49I'm enjoying the hell out of my job.
12:52Here was his message to frustrated Warrior fans.
12:55This is all part of it.
12:56I mean, it's, Phil Jackson used to say, basketball is a metaphor for life, and vice versa, and it's true.
13:04You go through ups and downs and everything in between.
13:06I think the beauty of what we've been able to accomplish and what we're trying to do
13:11is just in the quest, in the journey itself, and we're fighting, and we're going to continue to fight,
13:18and I look at everything over the last 12 years, and I couldn't be more proud of the organization and
13:23the group,
13:24and we're going to get some guys back.
13:26Hopefully, we get Steph back in the next couple of weeks, and we're going to give it another run.
13:30And that's the whole point, year after year.
13:33You keep giving yourselves a swing at the plate and play meaningful basketball and see what you can do.
13:38And I know we're going to have some exciting games and an exciting finish to the season,
13:43and we'll see what we can accomplish.
13:46You know what I hear in there, and I think this is fair, and if we really, really want to
13:50be rational for a moment,
13:52and I know a lot of us don't, we should wear this.
13:55So just think of the question, and I actually heard Stiney earlier today play that exact same sound clip,
14:02and he goes, I'm sure Willard and Dibbs didn't ask it this way, but here's his answer to,
14:07what's his message to frustrated little fans who think that they get to win every single year
14:13and are completely entitled? And then he played that clip.
14:17Well, when you hear Steve in there, when I asked him, what is your message to fans right now,
14:22and tucked into that answer is, when I look back at the last 12 years,
14:27I couldn't be prouder of what we've accomplished and how the organization has handled everything.
14:33And when he says it that way, he's obviously right.
14:37They've been amazing, if you look at the totality of all of their time there, right?
14:43I think what's tucked in there, and the Warriors as a whole, all of them, they're all in a tough
14:49spot.
14:49I just wish everyone would admit this.
14:52They're in a tough spot because they feel confusion about why people are mad.
15:01They feel they've done a great job and arrived at the inevitable and then got ripped for the inevitable.
15:12Now, Steve is an interesting one because he's not on social media.
15:16And I actually think he's one of the few who doesn't cruise around listening to 95.7 The Game.
15:22I think Steph does.
15:24I know Draymond does.
15:26But I don't think Steve Kerr does.
15:29I think Steve's cooking and looking for dogs and grandkids and dinner.
15:33I think that's what Steve does with his time.
15:36And we know that he's not even on social media.
15:39So I don't know how tired he is of that narrative.
15:43But when I hear him answer it that way, there's just that little tinge of the Warriors are in a
15:50tough spot because they probably feel like they should fight with you all about how bad things are.
15:56But they can't do that because they're the Warriors.
15:58They're the entertainment entity.
16:00They want you to buy tickets.
16:02They can't act mad.
16:04But behind the scenes, I can promise you, they don't know why you're mad.
16:08And that's probably why they are tired.
16:12Well, Draymond's not tired.
16:14And Draymond is not.
16:15I don't think so.
16:16But when he goes out on his podcast and talks about all the great things that he was a part
16:21of and how he made a lot of it happen and how the people who don't think that or the
16:26people who were here before him were losers, I think that that's what you're talking about.
16:31The organization was a loser organization.
16:33Just the way he went about it.
16:35It was a strong clap back.
16:36And it kind of is what you're describing that they're not doing.
16:41But he does it.
16:42And so he does it.
16:44He's allowed to do it.
16:45Anybody can do it.
16:46But that's part of his brand.
16:48And so I'm sure if they believe and they feel the way that you're describing it, they're probably happy that
16:53he goes out there and claps back on people.
16:55If they're really wondering why people are so upset after four titles and two finals appearances in 12 years and
17:02you're mad fans like, yeah, if you were here before, you should have an appreciation for what this is.
17:08And if you weren't here before or you weren't a fan before, then do your homework and realize just how
17:13special this is.
17:14Well, imagine, imagine.
17:16And this is why, and I know, I know, we're just number one Steve Kerr homers in the market and
17:21it's because he comes on every week.
17:22I know all of the silly narratives that are out there.
17:25Imagine this from a different perspective.
17:27If you if you if you're open minded enough to do it, you're Steve Kerr, you've coached the Warriors for
17:3312 years, half of the years you went to the NBA finals and you have four championship rings.
17:40You arrive at 2026.
17:43Jimmy Butler is not playing.
17:45He's out long term.
17:47Steph Curry's hurt, too.
17:49And at that moment, fans show up and they're like, you know what?
17:53You suck at coaching.
17:56I would love to know how any other human being on planet Earth, those of you who hate Steve Kerr,
18:05step up to the plate.
18:07We're wide open for you.
18:08How would you feel if that is how it went?
18:13You were somewhere for a decade plus.
18:15You had unmeasured, immaculate results in success.
18:20OK, then you get to the end and everything that you've been working with is either gone or really declining.
18:31Yeah.
18:31And then even that becomes not available to you.
18:34And in that moment, hordes of people show up to go, dude, I don't think you're very good at this.
18:42And he just kind of, you know, brush your shoulders off, calls the radio show.
18:49How's everybody doing?
18:50Even at the podium, like he never he never goes up there and loses it.
18:54And I'd go postal.
18:55We did this a couple of weeks.
18:56He cannot be that guy.
18:57And you he's like, yes, I do know what the bleep I'm doing.
19:01I do know what the bleep I'm doing.
19:03Which is good.
19:04Yes, he's right.
19:05And the way you were laying that out had me thinking of like a sandwich shop.
19:09And it's a great sandwich shop.
19:11It's, you know, award winning.
19:12And it has been for 12 years.
19:13And you go there one day and they didn't get their bread order.
19:17So all they have is the leftover stale bread.
19:20And sorry about that.
19:22This is all we have.
19:23And so you go on Yelp and you give them one star and you just rip them because the sandwich
19:27did not live up to billing.
19:28And the sandwich owners thinking, I mean, normally we're awesome, but our best player, the bread, got hurt.
19:34So how are we supposed to make sandwiches if we don't have bread?
19:37And that's a little bit of the situation here.
19:39I do think that fans, you know, get frustrated by what you do have and how it's deployed and how,
19:46you know, he's always in love with the small lineup.
19:49And, you know, you kept coming down and, you know, you love pods and all the rest of it.
19:53It's more the minutiae, but in the bigger term of just the Steve Kerr question, if I'm in his spot
20:00and it's 12 years and it's been, what I say, 36 years or 38 years, whatever the number is.
20:06You said 38.
20:07It's been because he's 60.
20:08So you graduate college, you go in the NBA, you play, you coach, you GM, you broadcast, you coach.
20:14And here you are and you're 60.
20:16And this is what you have to put up with.
20:18And the guy won, what, he's won nine championships across all platforms.
20:24And, you know, now in the social media age, even though you're not on there, you're still having to fight
20:30for your life, so to speak.
20:31It'd be tiring.
20:32I couldn't do it.
20:34That's for sure.
20:35Then again, maybe, you know, maybe he had done three games in four nights with two plane flights and a
20:41frustrating loss and didn't sleep well.
20:44And then had something active to do yesterday and then realized he was supposed to call us.
20:49And then he did.
20:50And maybe he just, maybe he was just regular tired.
20:53Played golf, shot a 92.
20:55I mean.
20:56That would piss me off.
20:57No doubt.
20:58I'd be all right with it.
20:59Well, I'd be all right with it.
21:00I'm not a former professional athlete.
21:02Right.
21:02Who knows what is going on.
21:04But in general, I just think that it's, it's been a taxing year, obviously.
21:09I mean, you lose Jimmy and then Steph and you know that you're going to be asked every single time
21:14you get near a microphone about Steph.
21:16And all you can say is the same thing, which is, you know, he'll be reevaluated in 10 days.
21:21We're not going to shut him down.
21:23We hope he's back.
21:24Yes, we want to be in the play and yes, we want to be a playoff team.
21:28Are there any new questions, my friends?
21:31And he does it with the same level of calm and aplomb and, you know, he hasn't done the whole
21:38like, and we let him off the hook or, you know, any of those other meltdown press conferences that we
21:43love.
21:44By the way, I wonder if our audience knows this, like he's not bound to do this.
21:47No.
21:49Like he's not bound to do this, but he does.
21:53Every week.
21:54Every single week without fail.
21:56Even yesterday when he probably was, I mean, could have been tired three games and four nights in three different
22:03cities.
22:04And like you said, you know, you might get home at 2 a.m.
22:07And you get home at 2.30 and you finally get to sleep and whatever.
22:11Like the minute we were talking to him, this is what flashed into my head.
22:14And I bet this happened.
22:16And I don't know that this happened.
22:18And I don't want to like, I don't know, are we revealing too much?
22:21But he probably got a call from the Warriors and they're like, oh, hey, we were thinking today.
22:26And it obviously has to be a non-game night.
22:28So it's either last night or today.
22:31And he probably both.
22:33Probably we would have, we would have taken him, but he probably got the phone call and he was like,
22:38I don't care for sure.
22:40But then he went, let's just do it right now.
22:45I'm going to be in the car.
22:47Oh, yeah, thanks a lot.
22:48Let's just bang this thing out.
22:50That's probably how it went.
22:53That's probably how it went.
22:54And then, see, and that's, I don't know, but I wonder if then we hear that and we go, oh,
23:00I don't think Steve Kerr wants to coach anymore.
23:03It's a little bit of a leap.
23:04It's too big of a leap, but I'm just thinking about after the Chicago game and it was overtime and,
23:10you know, we're in the dog days of the season and they just blew a big lead.
23:14But I looked at that and thought, oh, man, he looks, he looks a little bit like, like a coach
23:20would late in the season.
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