Steve Kerr missed over half of the Warriors’ 73-win season while he recovered from offseason back surgery. Luke Walton manned the ship for the first 43 games, guiding the team to a 39-4 record (and landing the Lakers’ head coaching job as a result), and Kerr returned in January. But the side effects of the surgery haven’t entirely gone away, according to ESPN.com’s Jackie MacMullan:
Golden State coach Steve Kerr didn’t catch Cleveland’s championship parade, or LeBron James holding the Larry O’Brien Trophy aloft, or J.R. Smith’s bare-chested he-man poses. He did not catch these things because, at the time, he was jetting to the Duke Medical Center in Durham, N.C., to meet with doctors — again — to press for answers as to why nearly a year after back surgery, he’s still experiencing searing pain and dizziness.
“Just got back,” Kerr said Saturday, six days removed from the Warriors’ Game 7 loss to the Cavaliers. “It was helpful. They tell me I’m improving, but it’s just going to take time. It’s kind of a long process.”
It seems like this is an issue that Kerr will have to deal with for the foreseeable future — hopefully, it won’t lead to any more forced sabbaticals, especially now that Walton is gone. Kerr has seemed fine since he returned, but if the pain is still there, this is something worth keeping an eye on.
