Kevin Durant addresses rumours of Steve Kerr almost joining New York Knicks before Golden State Warriors dynasty
· Yahoo Sports
Kevin Durant confirmed that he was aware of the stories that were circulating about Steve Kerr possibly joining the New York Knicks before his stint with the Golden State Warriors.
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The 61-year-old joined the Dubs as their head coach in 2014, taking over the reins from Mark Jackson, who had a good run with the team.
Before joining the Warriors, Kerr held a front office role with the Phoenix Suns and was even their General Manager for three years. However, after that, he had head coaching roles offered to him and one of them was from the New York Knicks.
“Yeah, I heard that story, good decision by him,” said Durant when asked by Ari Emmanuel if he had heard rumours of Kerr potentially taking over the Knicks.
The reason why Kerr joining the Knicks would have seemed right is the presence of Phil Jackson. Having won three championships under him with the Chicago Bulls, it seemed like a perfect reunion, as Jackson was serving as the President of Basketball Operations of the Knicks at that time.
However, Kerr had to turn the offer down due to how easy it would have been for his family, with his daughter already going to college in California.
“Ultimately, it was agonizing to say no to Phil because of what I think of him and what he’s done for my career,” Kerr said, according to NBA.com. “When Phil Jackson asks you to coach the Knicks, how do you say no? I think they’re going to turn it around, but going to be a big undertaking and it’s going to take time. The idea of doing that 3,000 miles from home, it just didn’t feel right.”
The Knicks ended up hiring Derek Fisher as the head coach, another player Jackson had coached during his time with the LA Lakers. This turned out to be a decision that no one in the Big Apple would like to remember, as the Knicks ended up with a franchise-worst record of 17-65 in Fisher’s first season. In his second season, they started with a 22-22 record, but ended up losing 10 games in a row, after which he was fired.
Meanwhile, Kerr had gone on to help the Dubs win their first championship in 40 years. In his first season, it was established that he was going to do something special with the Warriors. He went on to win three more championships with a team led by Steph Curry, who will arguably go down as one of the greatest players of all-time.
The Knicks in 2014 had many problems. Despite having a superstar player in Carmelo Anthony, they weren’t able to maximise his potential and ended up wasting his prime by not adding good players around him.
Going into that scenario in New York would definitely have changed the trajectory of Kerr’s career. Although the Warriors had an up-and-coming team, they were still young, but Kerr took the chance and it worked out well for him.
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