Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr says he considered taking a sabbatical from the NBA but decided against it in order to stick with his core group of players in Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
Kerr, speaking to international media on a virtual press call on Thursday, said he would be rotating his players during the season to combat player fatigue, while guarding against burnout himself.
The four-time champion coach — who previously won five NBA titles as a player for the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs — said: “I think every person is different, every situation is different. I know for me, the gift that I’ve been given to coach this team is something that I really cherish.
“With the core group of Steph, Klay and Draymond, we’ve been together now almost a decade. If they were not here, I could see [myself] maybe taking a sabbatical.
“It might be refreshing and recharging to do so in some ways, but I love these guys and this team so much and we have this window and I’m not going anywhere for the time being. I want to be with them and continue to coach them [for] the next few years.
“We’ll see where it all goes, but there’s arguments to be made for going different directions as a coach, but you have to take into account your own set of circumstances — and right now, I love what I’m doing [and] I love the people I’m with, so I’m going to keep going.”
He likened the season to a European football cup competition, where players get rotated to get minutes but also preserve their fitness for the end-of-season push: “I think the players will enjoy it, and I know the coaches are excited about it.
“We’re not going to treat it like the NBA Finals — I’m not going to play Steph Curry for 45 minutes because we have to think of the long-term health of our team — but we definitely want to win, and we’re going to be very competitive.”
One player who will benefit from this rotation is the Democratic Republic of Congo forward Jonathan Kuminga, who recently had his contract renewed for a fourth year with the Warriors, along with Moses Moody.
Asked whether Kuminga was emblematic of African players being recognized for a more diverse range of skills than ever, Kerr responded in the affirmative.
He said: “Yeah. I think that’s a natural evolution of the African players in the NBA. Now that we have training centers in Africa, they’re being coached and developed.
“I think you’re going to see more and more players coming from the continent who are skilled and capable of doing much more than the first wave of African impact on the NBA.”
Kerr understands basketball development in Africa better than most. Not only did he live in Cairo for three years as a teenager but he returned to coach at Basketball Without Borders Africa in 2022.
There are promising signs that 21-year-old Kuminga, who is averaging 11.3 points per game in 2023-24, could himself be poised for a breakout NBA season in his third year.
The in-season tournament could offer him an opportunity to gain more minutes and become one of those in line to take over from the core trio in years to come.
This story originally appeared on ESPN
