In the wake of his current run of dominance with the Golden State Warriors, many forget that head coach Steve Kerr used to be the general manager of the Phoenix Suns, but he is certainly not one of them.
In an interview with Mark Medina of The Mercury News before the Warriors played the Houston Rockets on Saturday, Kerr said he had regrets about his time in Phoenix, where he worked with current Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni.
“I have some regrets,” said Kerr, going on to reference D’Antoni. “I think we had a few differences that I probably didn’t handle very well as a GM that I could’ve probably handled better, especially given that we really like each other and have a lot of similar viewpoints on the game.
“I had some ideas on how we could get over the hump. Mike had some ideas,” the 2015-16 Coach of the Year continued. “We were both frustrated [that] we couldn’t beat the Spurs. I just think if I had more experience as a GM, I would’ve navigated that whole thing a little bit better.”
Kerr served as Suns GM for three seasons from 2007 to 2010, overlapping with D’Antoni and his “Seven Seconds or Less” era for just the first season. The team never advanced past the Conference Finals during Kerr’s tenure.
We know of at least one move that Phoenix Kerr probably would’ve liked to have back, but it might not be a stretch to presume that the hard lessons he learned with the Suns helped put him in a position to succeed in Golden State.
