By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
PARIS, France –The Olympics were not an easy ride for coach Steve Kerr, considering also the criticism he got for the limited minutes of Jayson Tatum.
However, the end was a win in the final with an instant classic from his longtime star in the Warriors, Steph Curry.
And Curry himself pretty much dictated this ending, as Kerr admitted in the post-game press conference: “I think when Steph suggested a play with LeBron, “hey, let’s do a cleared side pick and roll”, and I think I said just be careful on the blitz (ed. note: the second defender coming to pressure on the ball handler) because they had started to put pressure, and they forced a bunch of turnovers, and so I just said, be ready for the blitz, but he wanted to do it. And he was dead on, he got the matchup he wanted, he got the cleared side, and our guys did a good job of executing, and Steph made some incredible shots. I’ve seen it before, and usually, it works out well”.
It was a display of high-quality basketball and as Kerr said, it’s not a surprise that his players were so dedicated and ready to seize the moment: “It didn’t surprise me. There’s a reason these guys sign up for this. The Olympics are special and all these guys play for two things. They play for the NBA championships and Olympic golds. Those are the highest, those are the pinnacles of success as a player in the NBA, in America”.
And this starts from practice: “It’s no accident they can do what they do during crunch time. When you see these guys behind the scenes and how much they love the process, it all makes sense why they’re as good as they are. Steph earned this. I even wanted to tell him to take a day off because he was working so hard. It’s really impressive.”
The emotion on the game vs Serbia
For Kerr, this was evident from his players in the semifinal game against Serbia.
As he explained, the passion of the team was memorable: “There’s a reason Kevin keeps doing this here. He loves it and all these guys love it and in the game against Serbia, we were talking about it as a staff yesterday watching the tape. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen these guys on an individual level just show that much emotion, to come back the way they did against Serbia. That shows you how much this means to them and so to be a part of it and just try to help them along the way. I mean they do all the work. We just try to give them some advice, you know, some thoughts about what FIBA is about”.
The result was gold: “It’s bigger than almost anything else that you can experience as a group. That’s really special. I think that’s why these guys do it, that’s why they sign up there, that’s why we sign up for this coach. You can’t buy this feeling, you can’t buy the experience of working with a group and then achieving something special. So I’m very thankful for being part of it”.
And for the end, coach Kerr decided to praise Devin Booker, because nobody asked about him: “He was incredible this entire round. Just what he does, play to play to play. Rock solid. Completely changed his role from the NBA to now. He was kind of our unsung MVP. I just wanted to say that.”
Photo credit: FIBA