Steve Kerr

Steve Kerr
Player information
Full name	Stephen Douglas Kerr
birthday	27th September 1965 (age 54)
place of birth	Beirut , Lebanon
size	185 cm
Weight	82 kg
position	Point Guard / Shooting Guard
college	University of Arizona
NBA draft	1988 , 50th Pick, Phoenix Suns
Club information
society	Golden State Warriors ( Head Coach )
league	NBA
Clubs as active
1988–1989 Phoenix Suns 1989–1992 Cleveland Cavaliers 1992–1993 Orlando Magic 1993–1999 Chicago Bulls 1999–2001 San Antonio Spurs 2001–2002 Portland Trail Blazers 2002–2003 San Antonio Spurs
National team
000001986	United States
Clubs as coaches
Golden State Warriors since 02014

Stephen Douglas "Steve" Kerr (born September 27, 1965 in Beirut , Lebanon ) is a former American basketball player and current coach. Since 2014 he has been under contract as Head Coach for the Golden State Warriors in the NBA .

During his time as a player, Kerr was one of the top three-point shooters in the NBA. He was active for the Cleveland Cavaliers , the Chicago Bulls around Michael Jordan and the San Antonio Spurs and won five championship titles. Kerr holds the record for the highest three-point odds in NBA history (45.4%) of players with at least 250 three-pointers converted.

As coach of the Warriors, he always reached the NBA finals in his first five years and was NBA champion in each of the seasons 2014/15 , 2016/17 and 2017/18 . In 2016 he also received the NBA Coach of the Year award .

Life

Steve Kerr's father, Malcolm Kerr, was a Middle Eastern specialist . That is why Steve spent large parts of his childhood in Lebanon and other Arab countries . In Egypt he attended the Cairo American College . He also attended Palisades High School in Pacific Palisades , California. On January 18, 1984, his father, who was then President of the American University of Beirut, was murdered by a militant Lebanese nationalist.

Player career

In 1983, Kerr began his basketball career at the University of Arizona . In 1986 he won the gold medal with the US national team at the 1986 World Basketball Championship in Spain.

Kerr was selected in the 1988 NBA Draft in the second round (50th place) by the Phoenix Suns . In September 1989 he was sent to the Cleveland Cavaliers in return for the rights to a second-round draft pick in the 1993 NBA draft . Three years later, he moved to Orlando Magic for a second-round draft pick in the 1996 NBA Draft .

In the fall of 1993, he signed a contract with the Chicago Bulls as a free agent . With the Bulls around Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen , he won three NBA championships in the seasons 1995/96 , 1996/97 and 1997/98 .

In January 1999, the Bulls gave Kerr to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Chuck Person and a first-round draft pick . With the Spurs, Kerr was able to get his fourth NBA title in a row in the 1998/99 season .

In July 2001, the Spurs gave him along with Derek Anderson and a second-round draft pick in the 2003 NBA Draft to the Portland Trail Blazers . In return, Steve Smith went to the Spurs.

A year later, Kerr was returned to the Spurs. The Spurs also received Erick Barkley and a second-round pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. Antonio Daniels , Amal McCaskill and Charles Smith went to the Blazers for this. With the Spurs, Kerr was able to win his last of five NBA championships as a player in the 2002/03 season.

After the 2003 NBA Finals, Steve Kerr announced his retirement from active professional sports.

Records and Achievements

• As of July 2018, Kerr is the safest shooter since the 3-point line was introduced in the NBA in 1978, with a career hit rate of 45.4% .
• In the 1994/95 season , Kerr hit 89 of 170 attempted three-point litters. The hit rate of 52.4% was the highest in NBA history for a single season through the 2009-10 season.
• Kerr led the NBA twice in his career in throwing quota from the triple line ( 1989/90 with 50.7% and 1994/95 with 52.4%).
• In 1997 he won the three-point competition at the NBA All-Star Weekend . He had already participated in this tournament in 1994, 1995 and 1996.

Management career

On April 15, 2004, Kerr joined the Phoenix Suns management team , where he worked as a consultant. With the beginning of the 2007/08 NBA season he became General Manager of the Suns, where he replaced Mike D'Antoni , who wanted to concentrate on his coaching activities. Kerr served as a manager until the summer of 2010 before being replaced by Lance Blanks .

Coaching career

In May 2014, Kerr became the new Head Coach of the Golden State Warriors . There he succeeded Mark Jackson . The Warriors are Kerr's first coaching position in the NBA. Kerr was awarded a five-year contract in Oakland. In his first year with the Warriors, Kerr and the team set a new club record of 67 wins and 15 losses. This was the highest number of wins a newcomer to the NBA coach ever had. In the election for coach of the year , he came second behind Mike Budenholzer . In the playoffs he won the NBA Championship with the Golden State Warriors after a 4-2 in the finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers . For him this means his first ring as a trainer and his sixth overall. Kerr became the first coach since Pat Riley in 1982, who won the championship straight away in his first season.

Kerr as trainer of the Warriors (2017)

Due to a back injury, Kerr suspended the first few months of the following 2015/16 season as coach of the Warriors. His assistant Luke Walton took over for him , who led the Warriors to the best start of the season in league history with 24 wins in a row. After recovering, Kerr returned to the sidelines on January 22, 2016. At the end of the regular season, the Warriors had a record of 73-9. They had exceeded the previous record of the Chicago Bulls (72-10) from the 1995/96 season . As a result, Kerr was voted Coach of the Year for the first time. The Warriors reached the NBA final again under him, but where they were defeated by the Cavaliers after seven games.

In his third year as coach of the Warriors, they again achieved the best season record in the NBA with 67-15. After winning the first three rounds of the playoffs with 4-0 each, the Warriors faced the Cleveland Cavaliers for the third time in a row in the finals. Kerr had to sit out again for a few games during the playoffs due to back problems. In the course of the finals, however, he returned to the sidelines. The Warriors won 4-1, securing their second championship in three years. With 16-1 the team achieved the best playoff record in NBA history.

In the 2017/18 season he reached the final series against the Cleveland Cavaliers with the Warriors for the fourth time in a row, after the Warriors prevailed against the Houston Rockets in the Conference Finals 4-3. In the final, the Warriors managed a 4-0 victory, which meant the third title for coach Kerr.

Others

From 2003 to 2007, Kerr was an analyst for Turner Network Television (TNT). He also contributed with a segment at Yahoo! as an NBA commentator. He also voiced the EA Sports video games NBA Live from 2007 to 2008 and parts of the NBA 2K franchise from 2012 to 2015.

Web links

Commons : Steve Kerr  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Steve Kerr - player profile on NBA.com
• Steve Kerr - player profile on basketball-reference.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Steve Kerr. Retrieved April 23, 2020 (English). 
2. ↑ ^{a b} NBA & ABA Career Leaders and Records for 3-Pt Field Goal Pct. In: basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC., Accessed July 18, 2018 . 
3. ↑ foxsports Aug 6, 2010 at 2:22 pm ET: Suns hire Blanks as GM to replace Kerr. August 6, 2010, Retrieved April 25, 2020 (American English).