How’s this for a shocker: Steve Kerr is choosing the Golden State Warriors coaching job over the New York Knicks one.
TNT’s David Aldridge reported Wednesday evening that Kerr, who has never before coached, will be taking the Warriors coaching job. Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the deal is for 5 years and around $25 million.
The surprise here is that Kerr has been mentioned as the favorite for the Knicks job for weeks. However, we started having second thoughts about that news when Kerr took so long to accept. If he really wanted the Knicks job, wouldn’t he have closed the deal a long time ago?
Instead, it seems like he was using the Knicks as leverage for the Warriors, who fired Mark Jackson after losing in the playoffs to the Clippers.
Kerr is choosing a better situation and stronger roster, but the pressure will be immense; he has to do better than Jackson’s 51 wins and playoff series victory in the 2012-2013 season otherwise the fans will be all over him. And it seems like the reports saying Kerr wanted to stay on the West Coast and be closer to his daughter, who is a volleyball player at Cal, were not overblown.
