A Coach's Diary

Steve Kerr has won a total of 9 championships as a player and a coach, so few people in basketball know more about winning and culture than Coach Kerr. In an interview with Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley, he was asked how to build an effective culture. Before he started coaching, Coach Kerr said he visited several coaches, and NFL coach Pete Carroll asked him, “How are you going to coach your team?” More important than Xs and Os are the kind of culture you want to build, the values you want to have, and how you want to make them come alive. Carroll asked him, “What is the most important thing in your life? What are the most important values in your life?” Coach Kerr said, “[Your athletes] have to feel the authenticity of you.” When you have genuine, real values and make them come alive, that is when the culture starts to form. Coach Kerr came up with four words that defined him and his approach to life the most: joy, competitiveness, mindfulness, and c...

The video below is a great interview where Coach Nick from BBall Breakdown speaks with Steve Kerr about the GS Warrior offense, his coaching influences, how he teaches and practices what they do, and his philosophy on sharing the ball and movement. His offense came from many different coaches and mentors:  Phil Jackson and Tex Winter triangle actions with the split cuts out of the post, Motion strong and weak from Coach Pop, 21 Action from Mike D'antoni and Alvin Gentry, and Rick Adelman's corner offense. Kerr likes to introduce and teach concepts more than plays, which gives the players freedom to do what they do with structure.  He talks about the importance of repping what they do so that the players know their options and how to read and react with pace. Coach Kerr also talks about how the ball has energy and needs to be shared and the importance of keeping everybody involved in the offense. Catch the full video below:

This article was borrowed completely from RealGM .  You can read the original article here . The Golden State Warriors have run one of basketball's most interesting offenses during Steve Kerr's two seasons as head coach which emphasizes rhythm and flow. The offense stresses ball movement to create easy, high percentage shots at the three-point line and near the basket. “You see it on their faces when we start to score and when it starts to become overwhelming, when we’re hitting and rolling on all cylinders," said Shaun Livingston. "It’s just a crushing feeling when you take somebody’s will away, to where they don’t really think they can win, they’re not competing at the same level. That’s kind of a gratifying feeling.” “I don’t think I’ve made up anything that we do,” Kerr said in an interview with The Chronicle. “I’ve stolen from everybody, but most coaches would tell you the same thing.”

“For some coaches, they love getting into the bunker of the season. They crave a darkness of everything and everyone. Yet, Kerr doesn’t see the profession as a way to grind everyone down. He coaches to elevate everyone, and maybe that’s made easy with Curry and Durant and Thompson. Still, Kerr has always been true to his disposition: fiercely competitive, relentlessly self-deprecating and smart with everything he’s done in the game. He’s truly a product of his coaching mentors: Gregg Popovich, Phil Jackson and even Lute Olson. Mostly, Steve Kerr is the son of Malcolm Kerr, the American professor murdered in Beirut in a terrorist act in 1984. Kerr loves the game, but he’s always valued it within context of the people it allows him to reach, the voice it gives him for something bigger than the game.” These two paragraphs come from an article written about the struggles that Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is going through this playoff run.  For years, ‘the grind’ w...

This is a great article talking about the importance of knowing who you are as a coach and a leader, finding your voice, and knowing what you want to get out of your team.  Steve Kerr, upon taking over as the head coach of the Golden State Warriors, watched the Seattle Seahawks and met with their head coach Pete Carroll.  He admired their energetic style and the way that they mixed having fun with making competition part of everything that they do. Below are some of the highlights and takeaways.  You can find the article in its entirety here . As The Article States, Only 20% Is X's And O's.  80% Is Relationship, Atmosphere And Culture. PLAY HARD | HAVE FUN BELOW ARE HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ARTICLE: Find Your Own Style It's no secret around Seattle, and the NFL for that matter, that Pete Carroll's coaching style is unique in a lot of ways. Music plays over the loudspeakers at practice, there's a basketball free-throw competition amongst players a...