Earlier this month, Steve Kerr’s son, Nicholas Kerr was announced as the new head coach of the Santa Cruz Warriors and he has directly addressed the nepotism issue.
Nicholas certainly isn’t shying away from the fact that people may think he was promoted to the role because of his relation to Golden State’s head coach.
“I would never have gotten into the NBA without a family connection,” Nicholas Kerr told the Mercury News.
“I don’t blame anyone for saying I have privilege, they’re right. … I had not even a crack in the door, I had the door wide open for me.”
Despite Kerr’s honest take on his new role, his predecessor Seth Cooper says he was chosen for the role because of his work within the organization and that he well and truly earned it – no nepotism in sight.
“You look at a guy who might’ve spent time on the Golden State staff in the video and player development world and then was an assistant coach, and last year, [the] top assistant with us in Santa Cruz, that person — with the natural progression — would become a head coach,” Cooper said.
“Ever since I first met him, you can always tell that he really cared about it, worked hard at it and wanted to get better and learn,” Cooper told the Mercury News. “Definitely wasn’t taking any shortcuts to being a coach.”
The 30-year-old has big shoes to fill if his dream is to become an NBA coach since Steve has won four NBA titles at the helm. (Plus five more titles as a player.)
Who knows, maybe one day we will see Steve pass the torch to his son to become the top dog for the Warriors.
Until then, the younger Kerr will be honing his craft in the G League – where he was the top assistant for Santa Cruz last season.
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