Luke Walton’s head coaching debut was a resounding success. Filling in for the recovering Steve Kerr, the Golden State Warriors interim coach helped lead his team to an opening-night win against the New Orleans Pelicans. Yet, even though Kerr still isn’t feeling well enough to coach, he’s at least able to give his assistant coach some really helpful, sage-like advice.
Walton on Kerr's pregame advice: "Don't worry, we won 67 games last year and I didn't know what I was doing at all"
— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) October 28, 2015
There probably wasn’t all that much Kerr could have told Walton that he didn’t already know. He was on the Warriors’ bench last season, and Kerr has a reputation of letting his assistants actually coach, so it’s not like this would be the first time the team took directions from him. Really, all there was left for Kerr to do was make a simple joke.
Kerr’s selling himself way short, obviously, but he’s also demonstrating a key trait in surviving the long slog of an 82-game season: A sense of humor. The season can be as long as nine months. During that period, there are going to be highs and lows, and twists and turns. If a team, player, or coach isn’t able to laugh during the lows, they’re going to have a hard time lasting until the season’s end.
Kerr’s back injury and subsequent recovery is really the only low the Warriors have experienced since Kerr took over. Instead of moping about it, they’re all choosing to laugh.
