Steve Kerr, Steph Curry, Draymond Green face unknown as Warriors' season ends originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
PHOENIX – Steph Curry sat at the podium in a tiny room Friday night at Mortgage Matchup Center 45 minutes after the Warriors’ 2025-26 NBA season ended at the hands of the Phoenix Suns from a 111-96 loss in their second game of the play-in tournament. He wore a backwards Trophy Hunting Warriors hat, a white t-shirt and a red jacket that Draymond Green complimented with a laugh when it was his turn to hand over the microphone.
Curry also wore a look of confusion here and there.
“Was he in here going crazy? Y’all are giving me some lines,” Curry said, interrupting a question about Steve Kerr’s coaching future with the Warriors, eight minutes into his press conference.
The tone after the Warriors’ season ended completely turned to the great unknown. The unknown of how long Curry wants to keep playing and what it will take to get his right knee as healthy as possible this offseason after playing 43 regular-season games but still showing his superpowers two nights prior, extending his season for one more game. Draymond Green addressed his future, too, after such an up-and-down season that had his name in rumors ahead of the trade deadline. The spotlight shone most on their coach.
That’s the last thing Kerr ever wants, always crediting his players, especially Curry and Green. They’ve spent 12 years together, winning four championships and making the NBA Finals six times. They’ve gone through everything players can with one coach, packing their bags to climb the mountain top over and over again, and feeling every experience along the way.
From start to finish, Kerr expressed he’d revisit his future after the season. The day has come, and Kerr understandably and deservedly needs some time. He came into the season without a contract extension, and now even he can’t say what’s next.
He plans to use some time away to gather his thoughts, but not too long. Kerr says he’ll take a week or two and eventually sit down with Warrior owner Joe Lacob and general manager to see where they are and express where he’s at with his life and his feelings on the future of the franchise.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Kerr said. “I still love coaching, but I get it. These jobs all have an expiration date. There’s a run that happens and when the run ends sometimes it’s new blood and new ideas and all that. If that’s the case, then I will be nothing but grateful for the most amazing opportunity any person could have to coach this franchise in front of our fans in the Bay.
“To coach Steph Curry and to coach [Draymond Green], the whole group. It may still go on. It may not. I don’t know at this point. But we all need to step away a little bit and reconvene.”
The same question anybody would ask themselves is one Kerr will have to face: Who could ever walk away from Curry, even with him now being 38 years old?
Kerr can’t. He won’t, as long as the rest of the equation is right.
“I don’t want to walk away from Steph,” Kerr said. “I’m definitely not going and coaching somewhere else next year in the NBA. I would never walk away from Steph. But all this stuff has to be aligned and right.”
Curry’s first five years in the NBA were spent being coached by Don Nelson, Keith Smart and Mark Jackson. Then came Kerr, turning a good team into a great one. Without having to say the words out loud again, Curry has made his feelings clear: he wants Kerr to remain his coach.
He also cares much more about Steve the person than Coach Kerr being on the Warriors’ sidelines.
“I want coach to be happy,” Curry said. “I want him to be excited about the job. I want him to believe he’s the right guy for the job. I want him to have an opportunity to enjoy what he does, whatever that means for him. Everybody’s plan is their own. I’m not going to try to tell anybody what to do.
“He knows how I feel about him. That shouldn’t even need to be said.”
For the first two years of Green’s career, Jackson was at the helm. Now 12 years later, Green can’t imagine playing for any other coach aside from Kerr.
“No, I couldn’t,” Green said. “… I’m not really someone who likes things to change. I like pretty vanilla, status quo, keep things the same. So to have the situation I’ve had has been incredible for me, because I just don’t deal with change well. I don’t love it.
“I don’t want to think about that. I hope that’s not the case, but we’ll see.”
As the final seconds ticked off the clock, an uncertain Kerr was certain he had something to say to his two longest tenured players. A message of love and appreciation before diving into the great unknown, knowing an answer sooner than later must be made.
The three of them stood in a circle with Kerr’s right hand on Green’s left shoulder and his left hand placed on Curry’s right shoulder. He spoke with emotion, sure of the meaning behind the few words that needed to be said.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen next,” Kerr began, “but I love you guys to death. Thank you.”
Those words startled Curry. Still, a smirk cracked across his face as the special moment was remembered and asked about.
“He left the door open,” Curry said.
His coach has earned the right to swing it wide open or shut it completely. Change is inevitable in sports and even more so in life. Change is a fact not a feeling.
And if Kerr’s overriding feelings are that he wants to keep coaching, Lacob needs to listen. So does Dunleavy.
Change is coming. How much is the bigger question. If this was it, let the memories win. They’ll be there forever, long after Kerr is the Warriors’ coach.
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