More details are beginning to emerge with regard to Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr’s current health situation.
In an appearance on Bloomberg Radio over the weekend, Warriors owner Joe Lacob revealed that Kerr recently underwent a spinal cord leak procedure.
Per Anthony Slater of the Bay Area News Group:
“He had a back surgery,” Lacob said. “Relatively common procedure almost two years ago now. And had what is really a relatively uncommon thing happen. Which is the dura around the spinal cord got nicked. And you wind up having a spinal cord leak. And ultimately headaches and other symptoms. Bad headaches. Migraines. Unfortunately usually they patch that with a blood patch and it’s over. Either in a week or month. Whatever. And in his case for whatever reason they just haven’t been able to solve that problem. Hopefully it was solved yesterday he had another procedure. It’s gone on for nearly two years. Very unusual I believe. I have a medical background so I know a little bit about this. I’ve never really heard of many people having this problem for this long. We feel really bad for him, the players, everybody understands it. We just have to be in his court here and support whatever it takes for him to get back and I’m sure they will eventually solve it. Hopefully sooner rather than later and hopefully we’ll have him coaching on the court sooner rather than later.”
It’s obviously a concerning development for Kerr, who first experienced the spinal leak complication roughly one-and-a-half years ago, as Lacob hinted at. His recovery at the time cost him the first 43 games of the 2015-16 season, and now he has missed the Warriors’ last five playoff games and counting (with Mike Brown acting as head coach of the team in Kerr’s absence). The Warriors have already been preparing as if Kerr will not return this postseason, and based on these comments from Lacob, that may be a very likely scenario.
