
Tragedy Made Steve Kerr See the World Beyond the Court - rhayabusa
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/sports/basketball/steve-kerr-golden-state-warriors.html
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sdtransier
There's also a great podcast interview between David Axelrod and Steve Kerr
from several weeks ago:

[http://podcast.cnn.com/the-axe-files-david-
axelrod/episode/a...](http://podcast.cnn.com/the-axe-files-david-
axelrod/episode/all/1TfhnBh5egpoJz/ckpysa.html)

Axelrod goes into Kerr's background, his reaction to the assassination of his
father, etc. really great listen in my opinion. It's always fascinating to see
someone who's in an expert in one field (pro basketball), have such a good
understanding of something entirely different (Middle Eastern politics).

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jmduke
I hate Golden State. They're an eminently villainous team: overconfident and
insufferable. (This can also be said of many of their fans -- most of whom I
suspect had not called themselves a Golden State fan until 2013 -- and their
owner, who described their organization as 'light-years ahead' of the
competition because they had the good fortune to sign Curry to the best
contract in the NBA due to his reputation as injury-prone.)

I can't hate Steve Kerr. He's self-deprecating, he's insightful, and he's fun.
He's spoken passionately about basketball, obviously, as a coach and player
and commentator, but his use of his platform is truly admirable. The sports
world needs more people like him.

Largely speaking, it's becoming easier and easier for me to watch the NBA
instead of the NFL, if for no other reason than I _don 't feel guilty about
it_. As more evidence piles up that American football devastates the human
body and mind, it disgusts me a little to watch owners, GMs, and coaches avoid
talking about "the world beyond the gridirons" as much as possible.

Contrast this with figures in the NBA like Kerr, Gregg Popovich, and even the
commissioner Adam Silver (who handled things like Donald Sterling and the All
Star Game in Charlotte very well), and it just feels better to be a fan -- and
I hope the coming generation of aspiring athletes feel the same way. (This is
not to diminish the great job that players like Lebron, Carmelo, and Cousins
have done off the court to improve their communities and speak out about
issues, but I think the calculus is a little different as a player.)

[EDIT -- I forgot to include perhaps my favorite Steve Kerr moment, the speech
he gave after his game-winning shot in Game 6 of the '97 finals:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOCcd-
iAljI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOCcd-iAljI)]

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e40
When you say you "hate" a sports team, it's time to do some self-evaluation.

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jmduke
I don't think I've ever met a sports fan who hasn't hated at least one team.
Rivalries are fun; teams that you relish rooting against are fun. Emotional
investment in the outcome is one of the biggest reasons folks watch sports;
rooting for the underdog to win is rooting for the overdog to lose (and I
can't remember a larger overdog in quite some time than the Warriors.)

It's also eminently clear from my comment that I don't have some all-consuming
blind rage for the team, given that I just complimented the head coach, so I'm
not really sure what you're getting at.

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AznHisoka
It's weird in another sense because you're only hating the uniform, since
players changed teams so often these days.

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lambdasquirrel
Team culture can be a thing. Maybe there's something in the team's shadow that
irks him, like Draymond's temper. I personally find it fascinating, all the
emotions stirred up and that people aren't ashamed to talk about them.

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zatkin
I got redirected to the subscription page for NYT upon clicking this link.

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grzm
The "web" link beneath the submission title will bring you to a search page
with a link to the actual article, which should get you around the paywall.

