On Friday in Denver, Warriors coach Steve Kerr sat Andrew Bogut, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompsn and Andre Iguodala. Bogut and Iggy have gotten breathers before, but to hold out the Splash Brothers, rightfully rubbed some fans the wrong way.
It calls to mind Memphis’ decision to hold out most of their starters this month — continuing a trend, famously started by the Spurs during the lock-out shortened 2011-12 season.
The NBA’s grinding schedule of back-to-backs and long road trips with four games in six nights forces coaches to make this decision, but at least Kerr understands the fans suffer the most, especially if they’ve traveled great distances and spent a lot of money to see his NBA-leading Dubs:
Per the Associated Press, comes word Kerr actually took the time out of his busy NBA schedule to respond to those fans who emailed him about their disappointment:
Steve Kerr took time to email back three disappointed fans who were upset the Golden State coach rested his regulars Friday night at Denver before playing Saturday at home against New York.
“There’s two really good sides to the story,” Kerr said. “Nobody’s wrong here. … I can’t argue with them.”
[…]
“I heard from some fans. I received a few emails, stories about driving in from a long distance off and spending a lot of money on tickets,” Kerr said. “I have great sympathy for those people. I really do. It’s a tricky one. It’s something that I think Adam Silver is trying to address through the scheduling shuffling that he’s talking about.
“It’s real important, because our fans deserve to see the best product out there. If somebody spends a lot of money, they deserve to see the best players, the guy that they came to see. On the other hand, as coaches we have to do what’s best to prepare our teams for a really long year.”
That’s an amazing gesture. Kerr’s got a lot on his plate with the playoffs starting next month, but he took the time to reach out individually to three separate fans. I hope they realize how rare it is for a coach caught in the chaotic grind inside of 20 games remaining in the NBA season to actually write a personal email about this. Then again, the first-year coach for the Dubs isn’t like a lot of his coaching brethren.
Meanwhile, Andrew Bogut used Kerr’s gesture to take another back-handed swipe at Golden State’s pervious coach, Mark Jackson. While the majority of the locker room wanted Jackson to stay on board after last season, Bogut and Jax clashed during his tenure as coach. No one was happier about Kerr coming in this year:
“He’s great. He’s very engaging. He’s a normal guy,” Bogut said of Kerr’s gesture. “We’re definitely not used to that in a head coach.”
Regardless, this is just another reason Kerr was such a great hire.
[AP]
