The Golden State Warriors were very briefly without their coach once more this past weekend. Head coach Steve Kerr had to travel without the Warriors to China after a passport issue made it impossible for him to fly overseas with his team.
The Warriors are playing a pair of games against the Minnesota Timberwolves this preseason, with both of them happening overseas. The Warriors and Timberwolves are flying to China for a pair of games.
Golden State left Sunday for the games, which take place on October 4 and October 8, but Kerr wasn’t with the team to fly across the Pacific.
As ESPN explains, Kerr and the Warriors are not to blame here, they simply got caught up in a logistical issue and had to improvise.
A batch of passports were delayed — at no fault of the Warriors or Kerr — in being transported back to the team from the East Coast processing center, sources say.
No players were affected, sources say.
Kerr took a commercial flight to China on Sunday and rejoined the team, probably with a few extra little bags of pretzels or cookies to share if they were lucky.
It’s not like the Warriors are unfamiliar with having to play without Kerr. When he missed extended time last season due to a botched back surgery, the team went 11-0 in the postseason under Mike Brown. And preseason is, well, preseason. But it seems like Kerr got everything sorted out and the team is settled now. Maybe he even got an upgrade to first class.
