Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr is returning for at least one more season.
In a candid conversation with ESPN’s Wright Thompson on the eve of the play-in tournament, Kerr admitted he was 95 percent certain his 12-year run in Golden State would end when the season closed. Win or lose, he planned to walk away.
The Warriors finished 37-45 and earned the No. 10 seed in the West. They beat the Clippers in the first play-in game with a furious comeback led by Al Horford’s threes and Stephen Curry’s clutch play, then were eliminated by the Phoenix Suns. It was the fourth time since 2020 they missed the playoffs.
Kerr had first floated retirement last June after the 2025 second-round exit. He told Thompson over lunch in San Francisco that he and his wife Margot had discussed it for months. With Curry and Draymond Green nearing the end of their primes, he felt the franchise needed a clean start. Chronic back pain, which he called his “deep, dark secret,” had worn him down for a decade.
This offseason he began a therapy program rooted in the work of Dr. John Sarno and psychotherapist Nicole Sachs. Every morning he journaled for 20 minutes about buried trauma — including the 1984 assassination of his father, Malcolm Kerr, in Beirut — then deleted the entry and meditated. The practice eased the vise-like pressure behind his eyes that had plagued him since his first NBA Finals as coach in 2015.
The 2025-26 season tested him immediately. The schedule opened with 13 road games in the first 17, including brutal back-to-backs. Jimmy Butler tore his ACL in January. Curry missed 21 games with a knee injury. Jonathan Kuminga was traded to Atlanta in February. Through it all Kerr kept the locker room together, even writing a heartfelt letter to Green urging him to adapt his game as the emotional and defensive anchor rather than forcing offense.
Yet the old pull never left. After the Clippers play-in win in Los Angeles, Kerr sat in the coaches’ room, cracked a Corona, and quietly told his staff: “I’m not leaving.”
He met owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy in the days after the season. They spoke openly about honoring the dynasty’s past while preparing for its next chapter. Kerr recommitted. He told Thompson he wants the whistle, not a suit-and-tie front-office role. The same man who once described the Warriors as a “fading dynasty” now sees beauty in one final competitive stand.
At 37, Curry remains the engine. Green, 35, still sets the defensive tone. The young pieces — Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, Gui Santos — showed promise. Kerr believes the group can still deliver “meaningful basketball,” the feeling he and his players chase more than another ring.
For Kerr, the decision also closes a personal circle. Coaching unlocked his best self: more compassionate, more present, better able to carry the weight of his father’s death and his own physical pain. Walking away risked losing that daily purpose. Staying keeps the family — both blood and basketball — intact a little longer.
The Warriors will enter 2026-27 with continuity instead of upheaval. Kerr’s return is not about chasing one last title. It’s about refusing to let the feeling slip away without one final fight.
