Steve Kerr

Stephen Douglas Kerr (born September 27, 1965) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was the head coach of the U.S. national team. Kerr is known as one of the most accurate three-point shooters in NBA history and holds the record for highest career three-point percentage. He is also a nine-time NBA champion, having won five titles as a player and four as a head coach. Kerr was named one of the 15 Greatest Coaches in NBA History. Kerr played college basketball for the Arizona Wildcats. He was a two-time first-team all-conference player in the Pac-10 (now known as the Pac-12) and earned All-American honors as a senior in 1988. In the 1987–88 season, Kerr set the NCAA single-season three-point field goal percentage record (57.3%). Selected by the Phoenix Suns in the second round of the 1988 NBA draft, Kerr played 15 seasons in the NBA. He won five NBA championships as a player—three with the Chicago Bulls and two with the San Antonio Spurs—and retired as the all-time NBA leader in single-season three-point shooting percentage and career three-point shooting percentage. Following his retirement as a player, Kerr became a minority owner of the Phoenix Suns as part of a group led by Robert Sarver that purchased the team in 2004. In June 2007, Phoenix named Kerr the team's president of basketball operations and general manager. Kerr announced he was leaving the position in June 2010. After stepping down from his post with the Suns, Kerr worked as a color commentator for NBA on TNT until 2014. In May 2014, Kerr was named head coach of the Golden State Warriors. Under his leadership, the franchise entered the most successful period in its history, reachin

Golden State Warriors (2014–present)

2014–15 season: Emergence of Stephen Curry and the beginning of a dynasty
On May 14, 2014, Kerr who was given head coaching offers by the Golden State Warriors and New York Knicks in the 2014 offseason, reached an agreement to become the head coach for the Warriors on a five-year, $25 million deal, succeeding Mark Jackson. Kerr coached in the 2014 Summer League for the Warriors. During the 2014–15 season, the team's offense employed elements of the triangle offense from his playing days in Chicago under Phil Jackson, the spacing and pace of Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, and the uptempo principles Mike D'Antoni and later Alvin Gentry used in Phoenix when Kerr was the general manager.
After the Warriors beat the Houston Rockets to win their 14th consecutive game, Kerr became the first coach to start his career with a 19–2 record. This beat out Al Cervi and his 18–2 start with the Syracuse Nationals. On December 10, 2014, Kerr became the first NBA rookie head coach to win 21 of his first 23 games. He was named the head coach of the Western Conference team for the 2015 NBA All-Star Game after the Warriors had the best record in the conference. On April 4, the Warriors beat the Dallas Mavericks 123–110 to clinch home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, and Kerr got his 63rd win of the season to become the highest winning rookie head coach in NBA history, passing Tom Thibodeau and his 62 wins with the Chicago Bulls in the 2010–11 season. In the NBA Coach of the Year voting, Kerr was the runner-up to Mike Budenholzer.
The Warriors ultimately finished with one of the best regular seasons in NBA history, and the greatest in the team's 69-year history. They ended with an overall record of 67–15, becoming the 10th team to win 67 or more games in a single season and point guard Stephen Curry won his first of two consecutive regular season MVP awards. It was the first time the Warriors had ever won as many as 60 games in a season; their previous high was 59 in the 1975–76 season. They also ended with a 39–2 home record, which is tied for the second-best home record in NBA history. The Warriors were first in defensive efficiency for the season and second in offensive efficiency, barely missing the mark that the Julius Erving–led Sixers achieved by being first in both offensive and defensive efficiency. The Warriors became the first team in NBA history to have two win streaks over 15 at home (18 and 19).
In the first round of the playoffs against the New Orleans Pelicans, Kerr led the Warriors to their first four-game playoff sweep since the 1975 NBA Finals. Afterwards, the team beat the Memphis Grizzlies in six games during the Western Conference Semifinals. Down 2–1 in the series, Kerr made an unconventional adjustment in Game 4 to leave the Grizzlies' Tony Allen open and have his defender, center Andrew Bogut, guard the interior. This strategy was lauded after Allen, Memphis' best wing defender but a poor jump-shooter, was benched and limited to 16 minutes after missing wide open shots. The Warriors then defeated the Houston Rockets in five games during the Western Conference finals, making the NBA Finals for the first time in 40 years.
The Warriors faced the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2015 NBA Finals. Kerr and coach David Blatt were both in their first season as NBA head coaches, and this was the first time a pair of rookie head coaches faced each other in the NBA Finals since the NBA's first year of existence, in 1947 with Eddie Gottlieb of the Philadelphia Warriors and Harold Olsen of the Chicago Stags competing. After the Warriors went down 2–1 to Cleveland, Kerr started swingman Andre Iguodala in place of Bogut, jump-starting their stagnant offense for a 103–82 road victory that evened the series. It was Iguodala's first start of the season, and the small unit came to be known as the Death Lineup. After the game, Kerr admitted to lying to the press in response to preg