Source: The Boardroom
To hear an interview where Kerr discusses this concept further, click here. A copy of the transcript is provided below for those who don’t have access to Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio or deezer. The interview was conducted by David Stiepleman, Co-President of Sixth Street, a few months ago.
[Music]
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hi everybody it’s our fireside chat no fire um one hopes hi hi thanks for being
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here yeah thanks for having I’m I’m going to introduce you which is completely unnecessary but um I’m going to do it anyway say hi to Steve Kerr
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[Applause]
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Bulls fans and warriors fans and everybody fans uh head coach of the Golden State Warriors it’s a basketball
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team Steve played 15 seasons in the NBA known as one of the most accurate
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three-point Shooters in history this is the if you’re even a passing sports fan
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the the following is staggering nine-time NBA champion five times as a player three of the Bulls two of the
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Spurs and four as a coach of of the Warriors the NBA named you uh one of the
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15 greatest coaches in history not bad but you’re not even done uh so it may be
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premature uh you just signed on for another couple years with golden state and this summer heading to Paris to be
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the coach of Team USA the men’s uh National Team Awesome thank you for being here
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we’re happy to have you here
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we literally haven’t said anything yet but they’re clapping already it’s pretty cool um I want to start when when you
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know some guy like me reads off that resume it sounds inevitable like this
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inevitable march to Greatness like you know very linear not at all linear it never is for anybody it really wasn’t
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for you and you’ve been hanging out with us for you know the morning and so you know in this room is our team and our
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team you know we talk about our firm we talk about we invest we have this much Capital blah blah blah but it’s it’s the
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minds and importantly the hearts of everybody in this room that’s really the business and so we’re very uh long
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making sure that we can evaluate talent and I’d love you to talk about take a like a bunch of steps back whether from
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high school to college or from college to the pros not at all inevitable that you’d be doing any of those steps and
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what was that like and what did they miss oh well um yeah I guess I could
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tell you that I finished my senior year of high school without a scholarship offer and so if I had thought then you
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know that somehow I would be part of nine championships teams in in the NBA
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uh I would have thought you were nuts um I think what I’ve learned uh over over
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time both as a player and as a coach um people develop at different rates
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there are different opportunities some people are luckier than others you land in a certain situation um there’s ALS all kinds of
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luck and good fortune that goes in into life um but we we misevaluated Talent
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constantly at you know in the NBA I I recently heard that uh half of the players in the NFL are undrafted half of
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them which uh is shocking um so yeah I I think when you’re young you just you
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feel like oh my gosh I got to be noticed and I got to look at all these amazing people out there how can I ever do that
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and then you get older and you realize um there’s there’s so many different Pathways to get there but um it does
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require preparation it does require some luck but it requires I I think um a
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uh a willingness to to work and to communicate and to learn and to never
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stop that process yeah I mean um one of the things that I remarked on as I was
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thinking about your your path is you’re finishing your time at Arizona I think
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in your last year you guys were in the final final four I mean pretty successful and you didn’t know if you
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were going to be on on you weren’t even thinking about like an NBA career necessarily and then you’re like all right well I I’m going to do this I’m
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going to hang on for a year or two we’ll see what like what did what I guess talking about like managing your own
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career and and and working it like you realized the things that got you to that point weren’t going to keep you there I
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think so what like what was that realization process like for example working on your shot like you were working you’re a pretty good shooter but
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you I think you like deconstructed your shot in like your first or second season what was that all about yeah I mean to
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be honest I never really thought about playing in the NBA I thought about playing in college I grew up my dad was a professor at UCLA so I I grew up going
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to poly Pavilion when UCLA was right in that Heyday of winning national
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championships year after year after year so I walked into paully Pavilion probably
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1972 Bill Walton was playing for UCLA I walked in there and I immediately
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thought this is where I want to like it was incredible the colors the sights the band The the emotion of the crowd I it
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just grabbed me instantly and so um I just loved Sports back then we played
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every sport you know it’s not like now where you specialize 12 straight months which um another topic I think it’s
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terribly unhealthy but um back then you just played whatever Sport and and I so I played everything and I loved Sports
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and I never really thought about what I want to do for a living I just did stuff that I enjoyed you know and and when you
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got to the NBA and you’re like uh this isn’t work like what did you do like what like yeah I mean so starting in in
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like maybe my sophore junior year in high school I really started to focus on basketball so I worked hard at it
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wanting to play college basketball um eventually at the last second got a scholarship to Arizona and once I got
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there I you know I had the the coaching and the training and the facilities to really put a lot of work into it and as
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I got more and more successful I I just it became you know an obsession and I
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just thought well I’ll coach I mean I’m going to stay in basketball I didn’t think I would play in the NBA so I just
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thought this is what I want to do I love the game I love being on a team and I just figured I’d coach but I kept
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working uh you know to play and to get better and um it it’s kind of worked out
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yeah kind of um your coach in college lud Olson legendary lud Olsen said that
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you were like he knew he knew you were a smart player you were uh that’s that’s
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code for slow if they say you’re smart that just means you’re slow is that true yeah
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pretty much true but but he didn’t see he didn’t see anything else in you what’s that didn’t see any what but what was he like no he he he saw that I could
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shoot and and this was pre-analytics days yeah but coaches still understood
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that the ball has to go through the hoop you know they just didn’t understand the value of the two-point shot versus the
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three but they they did recognize that it had to go in and and so I could really shoot but I had a lot of other
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areas of my game that I had to uh develop in order to survive out there
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okay um I was I’m interested like now you’re in the league let’s call it like four or
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five years you started with the Suns you went to the Cavaliers then you’re at the heat it’s 92 is if I got that right or
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93 and Chicago Bulls of just W uh the championship and you’re sitting in Miami
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or wherever you’re sitting thinking I actually think that’s the team that I should be on can you walk us through your thinking like this is like you this
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is like higher level like personal strategic thinking like what what was all well it was it was kind of a
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technical thing but I I watched the Bulls play uh they had a guy named John Paxton so older basketball fans will
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remember well and um they ran uh this offense that nobody else ran it was
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called the triangle offense and I watched from afar and I thought I could be John Paxton like that’s you know
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that’s the guy that I could emulate um similar skill set similar size he was
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much better player than I was um but he was somebody I thought that’s where my
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skill would really fit and it just so happened that he was retiring that year
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and um the the Bulls were looking for somebody to to to play that role and and
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I so I went there and I basically tried out for the I didn’t have any guarantee at all it was a you know just a tryy out
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and uh and I I made it and it was a perfect fit and that that stin in Chicago changed my entire life really
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you talk about that talk about how to change your life I mean I have an idea well I I flourished as a player
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because of the things I talked about that I fit right in um to the their
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style and then Michael Jordan decided to come back that’s this was when I went
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there he was playing baseball he had left and retired when he came back um
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that’s when my life changed because we won three championships in a row as a as
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a result of his return and um being along for that ride just
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like being along for this ride with the Warriors being along for the ride with the Spurs uh when you win people notice
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and you meet people and things happen and the ball starts rolling literally and um until that point with Chicago I I
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was just kind of trying to survive and and hang on to a career for as long as I could and then that’s when everything
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changed when when you know when I was part of championship teams I know you everybody ask you to
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tell the story but you got to it’s 97 the last shot in game s against Utah and
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I want to I want to ask you a larger point about that but can for the person who’s been under a rock and doesn’t know
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that story can you just tell that I actually don’t maybe people don’t know that story but it’s an incredible story about being in the Huddle deciding
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what’s going to happen on the last play of the of the Season well it was game six not game seven if it was game seven
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I I I don’t know if I would have had the guts to to to take the it’s big of you
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to admit that yeah um well the the uh yeah we were playing Utah and
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um earlier in the series in a similar situation John Stockton who was guarding
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me had gone over and double teamed Michael Jordan and stolen the ball and
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uh and they beat us this was I think game three or something and so similar situation Tai SC with about 20 seconds
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left and we had a timeout and um the cameras actually captured it and and um
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you know they they were kind of in the Huddle basically and Michael turned to me and said be ready Stockton’s going to
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come you know double team and so I put on a brave face and you know I said oh
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I’ll be ready you know like please go in please go in uh
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but um no it’s it’s the moment every kid dreams of and I I mean I literally had
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that moment in my driveway a thousand times you know you count it down you know game-winning shot you play it out
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in your head 5 4 3 2 1 you shoot if if you miss in your driveway you pretend
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you got fouled you know and you have two free throws to then try to win the game
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um but no it was um to this day I mean it’s the most
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surreal moment because it was literally something that I had played out in my
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head a thousand times but every young basketball player does it I actually got
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to live it so what an incredible moment it is incredible but is it too glib like
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let let me take a step back at some point before this you were exploring
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what I think you’ve called The Mind Body Connection and getting out of your own way and you you call yourself you called
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yourself an overthinker was that part of the I mean it had to
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have been part of this can you talk about that talk about talk about being Jeff Hornes SEC and pra like what what like what what’s that all about no I I I
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was always an overthinker and and um you know the I think the hardest thing about being an athlete is to uh combine the
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Mind B mind and body to to integrate your your talent um into an emotional
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space where you can just find the best version of yourself without you know thinking
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and um it’s you know the Zone people talk about but how do you get there and
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for me as I uh climbed the ladder and and got into these you know higher
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leverage situations um I I was thinking too much early in my career and and um
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so I I found a book through a friend of mine um called the inner game of tennis
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and um it’s a book I have 10 copies on my shelf right now in my office I buy
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buy 10 every year and give them away to people um the whole book is about
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combining the mind and the body the author is a guy named Tim Gay his first
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chapter he said and he was a tennis coach first chapter he says I’m watching a tennis match and the player right in
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front of me is talking to himself after every bad shot he’s saying you idiot you know what are you doing he said I
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thought to myself who’s he talking to right he said I realize there’s two two of us there’s there’s the conscious and
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the subconscious self he calls it self one and self two and he he he developed
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this whole philosophy uh as a tennis coach of finding ways to combine self
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one and self two to integrate them to the point where you can be the best version of yourself the book was
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fascinating and um so one of the suggestions it had was um take a
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practice session or a or a match tennis match and pretend you’re the best player
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in the world pretend for a second you’re not you know Joe Smith you’re Bjorn Borg
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you’re you know John mackenro you’re you know lendel whoever uh jokovic and so
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you know you I I read that I’m like all right I’m going to go to practice today and I’m going to be Jeff hornek who was
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a All-Star version of me in the NBA much better but you know my size similar game
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but way better and he played for Utah he played for Phoenix um I just thought I’m going to be him for a day I had by far
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my best practice of the year it was like I was killing it out there and practice
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ended and I thought how pathetic is that I had to pretend to be somebody else to be the ve best version of me it made no
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sense but it did in the context of the book and in thinking about you know how
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we get wrapped up in results instead of process and I’ve I’ve like I said I I’ve
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used that book for my whole life now just to remind myself you got to get lost in all of this you’ve gota you got
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to give your body and your mind a chance to be free and and and not be so
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attached to results judgment and criticism especially from yourself especially from yourself it’s a I I had
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not heard of this book until I started we that you agreed to come here 134
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pages I have in my it’s it’s I it’s been blowing my mind for like the last six days it’s really interesting book much
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harder I would have imagined to do that even with that book and that guidance in the era of social media yeah do you
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think you would have been able to do that I don’t know I I I remember uh when I was trying out for the Bulls um I was
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having a great training camp and but you know non-g guaranteed contract um just
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hoping to make the team and I’m thinking I got this I’m playing great you know had four or five great days of practice
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and at the gas station I’m like I think I’ll pick up a Chicago Tribune you know read about the Bulls read read about
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what what they’re saying and the the uh the author of the story basically wrote you know that Kerr is likely to be waved
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you know he probably won’t make the roster and it it crushed me you know it was like I felt like I lost this
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confidence and and the vibe that I had going yeah and I went home and I was
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like I I don’t think I’m going to make it like because this you know some writer said that right so from that
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point on I said I’m not reading this stuff anymore and it was really easy you just didn’t have to buy the Chicago
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Tribune so fast forward 30 years try doing that now forget it right we’re all holding every bit of information in our
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phones so I think it’s never been harder to be a professional athlete it’s never been harder to be a functioning member
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of society you know as a business leader in this room you like you every we all have to tread so carefully um and we’re
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all humans so we’re all subject to human emotions and we want people to like us
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and uh so it is so brutally difficult today to navigate all of that um but you
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have to try your best to do it and like I said back then it was like just don’t pick up the paper and don’t turn on
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afternoon talk radio and you’re fine but today it it requires a lot of discipline
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I think my no email idea is picking up steam thank you Steve appreciate
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that actually I just had a thought you tell tell me this is wrong I read a story about you about when you go to
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Chicago you go to Second City the famous improv and you you like go up on stage
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and you are you practicing mind body is that what you’re doing like what are you doing no I love Second City anybody go
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to Second City before yeah it’s so fun it’s my kind of my favorite thing to do in Chicago and that you know they they
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just uh there’s so much history there but um people are so talented and The Improv stuff that they do and and um so
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it’s kind of a checklist I take the we go to Chicago once a year with the Warriors and uh if we have a night off I
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take the coaching staff one year I took some of the players couple of them got up on stage and and uh it’s it’s you
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know that’s just one of those one of those what does that feel I you’re with like professional improv people they
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make it pretty easy for you yeah but um yeah that’s fun that sounds fun um okay
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then become a coach I make that sound easy you actually did an enormous amount of prep
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and one of the things you did was you went and spent time with Pete Carrol and
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the Seahawks the famous football coach formerly of USC and what like what was that like why did you do that what did
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you learn well first it was hard to go there because I hated USC so much as a UCLA fan growing up I you know I
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couldn’t stand USC but I couldn’t take my eyes off USC football when Pete Carroll was the coach it was incredible
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it was mesmerizing to watch wasn’t that they were so good it was the energy it was the force you could feel it coming
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through the TV and I knew some of it was Pete’s personality but but some of it was just whatever however they built
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their culture it was uh it was really uh incredible so I um got in touch with
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Pete through a mutual friend he invited me up I watched three days of practice and um sat in on the coaches meetings
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and after three days he calls me into his office and uh he goes um he goes so
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how are you going to coach your team this is after I had signed with the Warriors but before we even had a a
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practice and I said you mean like what offense are we going to run and he goes no no that stuff doesn’t matter like
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that has nothing to do with it and I’m like oh great I’ve spent like a year trying to figure out what we’re going to do strategy and he said no no he said he
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said let let me tell you what I learned he said I was an NFL coach for I think
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it was four years two years with the Patriots two years with the Jets he said he got fired both places he said I
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didn’t learn about coaching until I came to the 49ers and worked as a coordinator
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quarterback’s coach or or a secondary coach I think he said I I would go down and talk to Bill Walsh at the end of
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every day and i’ just pick his brain and Bill Walsh taught me what coaching is about and I said please go on you know
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and um but he explained to me that that you know obviously you have to have talent I mean when I got to the Warriors
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we were loaded with Talent Andre had you know was was there a year had a young Steph Curry had a young Klay Thompson we
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were loaded so you have to have talent to win um but what Pete taught me was
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how you how you build a culture is really through your values and your habits and and so he said go home and
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figure out what what are your values your most important values to you you know not Phil Jackson’s not Greg Papa
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which is yours so I came in the next day and and you know G I had really I really
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did some um some you know introspective thinking about who I am and my background my family every I gave it a
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lot of thought and I came in with four values and and uh he said those values
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have to come alive every day so for example one of them was Joy like I just
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feel like Joy should be such an essential part of everybody’s day right it’s kind of what we all live for yeah
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he said well how are your players going to feel Joy in practice you know and I
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just watched his guys um practicing for three days there’s music pumping there’s laughter there’s humor um it it’s clear
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that that’s a value that he shares and his players were feeling that every single day so the lesson he taught me
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was you know the way you establish culture is if your values as the leader
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come alive and they have to be authentic you can’t make that stuff up so was a
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fascinating experience for me to go up there I didn’t think that’s what the lesson was going to be at all and the
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lesson was so powerful and it also reminded me that that’s exactly what
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Phil Jackson had done it’s exactly what Greg papovich had done lud olssen at Arizona they they were all very
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authentic to themselves but they were values driven leaders and those those values came alive every day we had um a
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pan panel yesterday with some invest s of ours I don’t know if um if D is still
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here but um one of our investors just said in describing us it’s a Vibe it’s a feeling and you can there’s lots of
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words by the way what tell people what the four are besides Joy uh Joy competition uh mindfulness and
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compassion and and I I was raised in a very academic family my dad was a
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professor um my older siblings are are phds um I was sort of the black sheep of
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the family uh U OFA General Studies major go go
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wild cats um but i’ I’m kind of in the family business right it’s coaching is
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teaching and I just remember so many moments in my childhood where my dad’s
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colleagues from all over the world he was a Middle East political scientist a professor eventually became the uh
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president of the American University in Beirut so there were people from all over the world in our backyard having
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barbecues my whole childhood and I just remember the vibe and those were the
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values that I associated with my own upbringing and that’s how I you know sort of came to be that’s amazing you’re
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um I mean you spent a large part of your first 16 17 years out of the country you were born in Beirut if I’m not mistaken born in Beirut yeah my my dad was born
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there his parents his uh my grandparents were actually missionaries uh during
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World War I they were in their early 20s they met there um imagine being in your early 20s
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going to Turkey during the Armenian Holocaust over a million Armenians were killed um in World War I so they went as
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relief workers and started an orphanage for Armenian children um this was like
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1918 1919 wow early 20s can you imagine I mean you’ve got two kids I’ve got
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three can you imagine your child comes to you at you know 22 and says hey I want to go over to where this Holocaust
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is happening and I mean so incredible story but they ended up settling in
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Beirut and that’s where my dad was born my mom met him she was on her junior
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year abroad uh spending um her junior year from accidental College in Beirut
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my dad was a student there and they met and so and I was born there my older two
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siblings were born there my dad taught taugh at the University at the time so we had a yeah we have a long history of
25:32
roots in in Lebanon how how I mean obviously that has an incredible impact on your outlook and how you think about
25:38
people and think about interacting with people would you Bo how would you boil that down is that yeah I think um I
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didn’t realize it at the time but it was the best education I ever received when I got older we um my dad took the job at
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UCLA but he would take sabatical every few years so we went to Cairo Egypt for
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three years we were in France for a year um so I was you know teenager living in
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Cairo and um going to school with kids from all over the world so I didn’t understand it at the time but um you
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know seeing um diversity up close experiencing people uh friends from all
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walks of life um incredibly powerful and I think um having that background kind
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of shaped my worldview and shaped um you know the way I see uh the power of
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diverse thinking you know and and collaboration yeah okay so you’re in the family
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business as a coach and you you said something that caught my ear which was you know you’re basically doing the same
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thing as coach papovich Phil Jackson Co but if you watch the Last Dance that
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locker room that culture in Chicago seemed like a lot different from the one that you’re you’ve cultivated can you
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can you talk about that yeah I mean I think the authenticity part is so important you know you can’t be anybody
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else and that was another thing you know Pete Carroll said to me you you can’t you can’t be anybody but your if you try
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to be Phil Jackson you know then your your players will see right through it right and um Phil was so unique he grew
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up in South Dakota near an Indian Reservation he had this intense passion for Native American history and
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spirituality um so that was a part of his coaching style um we would warm up
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before practice and when it was time to go upstairs we would meet every day in this um basically a film room um but the
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room was adorned with Native American art um he would come out on the balcony while we were warming up when it was
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time for our meeting to start and he bang on a drum and and he referred to us as his tribe like we were his tribe and
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you recognize pretty early on that it was authentic it was genuine like he he
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was he he believed so deeply uh in the spirit and the authenticity of a tribe
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and how a tribe functions that we became his tribe and you don’t you know you first couple days you’re kind of like is
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this real and you realize yeah it’s it’s real I can’t do that I don’t have any of that in my background if I tried it
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would be insane so you just you know I think every coach every every great coach I’ve had has been so unique and
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authentic Greg papovich is amazing and he couldn’t be more different from Phil Jackson but they’re you know two of the
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top few coach is in the history of the game also in the top 15 I think yeah a
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little higher than I um compassion I thought was a very interesting one I heard you you and Pete
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Carol did a podcast during the during the pandemic and after which is people should listen to it’s fantastic and I
28:45
loved your guys’s conversation with Dave Roberts the Dodgers manager and he was talking about you know every it’s a much
28:52
bigger roster than a than a basketball team but baseball is but the guys who
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are maybe you’re not going to see every day maybe you know they’re not starters
29:02
maybe they’re in the bullpen whatever he was very focused on them feeling him and seeing him and and they
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knowing that he understood like what they were going through and what the context is I I I I think that’s part of
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compassion I imagine that’s important how do you do that yeah I mean I I think in basketball it’s easier than those two
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sports because it’s we have 15 guys um but I think it’s important for me and my staff to know all 15 guys
29:28
story because um it’s a hard job it’s a dream job but it’s a hard job you know
29:33
it doesn’t matter who you are if you’re Steph Curry you’re one of the greatest players of all time that’s a pretty high
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bar to reach every single day imagine the pressure on on Steph Curry and and
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if you’re the 15th guy you’re just trying to make it you’re trying to pay your bills you’re trying to to achieve a
29:50
life that can change the course of your family’s history um from a financial
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standpoint um and everything in between right you’ve got different players every year at different stages of their career
30:02
if we don’t know their stories then that’s on us because we’re coaching them
30:08
so we need to know what makes them tick and I I think it’s that’s a a really important part of any leadership
30:13
position is really getting to know people it’s not just imparting technical knowledge it’s really getting to to know
30:21
them and care about them because then that’s when the communication
30:27
really can cck and you can get to the the you know the juicy part the juicy
30:32
part supposed to ask a follow question on that but okay you’re um you’re like texting your
30:38
players after a game especially after a loss I think I’ve heard you say like what what like what do you get without divulging state secret texting texting
30:45
yeah what do you like what do you what’s that all about uh yeah I I just think um texting
30:52
uh writing a note um you know having a conversation there’s there’s a lot of
30:59
different ways to communicate sometimes if you um with the younger group they’re
31:04
going to they’re going to pay attention to the text they might go back and read it versus a conversation they may forget
31:10
what you said uh or not pay attention at all yeah um so I think I think uh part
31:18
of the job is touching base with players periodically where it doesn’t have to be
31:23
like hey we’re going to have a meeting in the principal’s office it’s just hey how you doing and and I think I think a
31:30
text or a note sometimes is a really powerful way to communicate let’s talk
31:35
about you you you were you were sitting in the session this morning we did about your organizational system one’s organizational system and one of the I
31:43
think themes that Allan was mentioning was kind of like you know we’re not the same people we were 10 years ago you’ve
31:49
been coaching for 10 years a little more what’s how have you changed how has your approach changed has it changed both as
31:56
a function of like you know you have different players but also you have different skills and abilities like as
32:03
we get older like we can we we we can do different things right mentally and what we’re focused on how has it changed for
32:08
you I think it’s changed um in that the league has changed so much when I came in 10 years ago um we had six coaches
32:18
now we have 14 and um I’m I’m managing a much bigger
32:23
group now and it’s um that changed everything uh the way the game is played
32:28
now is very different we saw on the analytics um presentation earlier um all
32:34
that stuff you know 10 years ago was just kind of entering the league and now
32:39
it’s Common Place everybody is kind of um copying um this this pattern of layups
32:48
and threes and um you know we were at the time 10 years ago we were the
32:54
innovators we were the ones shooting all the threes um now we’re you know we we were also
33:01
playing the fastest pace of anybody in the league and because we were winning
33:06
people started copying us and now we’re the ones who are looking up and saying
33:12
oh we we got some things to catch up on you know and we and so part of my job now is to figure out what those things
33:18
are yeah and so some of that is is analytically some of that is Personnel
33:23
driven some of it is style so for me I always searching for uh different uh
33:32
ways to play different styles of offense I visit other coaches I’m I’m going to
33:37
visit some college coaches this summer uh because I think the college game in
33:42
some ways um is different from the pro game and I’m looking to maybe zag a
33:49
little bit you know um as as a lot of people are are zigging I think we got to zag a little bit based on our personnel
33:56
and so I need some fresh ideas is I need some new thoughts so I think this stuff we’re all constantly evolving and
34:03
learning and it’s it’s important not to just you know stop that process the the
34:08
the the analytics like from from an amateur’s perspective like mine like people think about money ball I know
34:13
you’ve spoken to Michael Lewis that’s super interesting to you but is it too like baseball’s got so much stuff that
34:20
you can kind of analyze basketball I think much much different and so are there limits to that and are you are you
34:26
like already hitting the limits of that or you think there’s more sort of analytics besides shot Arc or whatever else you guys are looking at I think I
34:32
don’t I don’t think there are limits I think things will continue to evolve I think the the hardest part with analytics and sports is um the data can
34:40
be wrong you know it’s just like your your opinion as a coach um you know I
34:45
can run a play that I think is is right and it doesn’t work uh the data
34:50
sometimes can be misleading I’ll give you an example when I was in Phoenix as general manager we had this guy Amari
34:56
STM who was an amazing player and from dunking to about 6 feet he had this
35:04
little hook shot that was deadly and he was an incredible finisher but he was
35:10
nearing the end of his contract we were thinking about trading him so I we put our analytics department on this project
35:17
and they came up with a list of players who were equally or even more uh proficient
35:26
from 0 to 6 feet than Amari Shire okay so they every shot from Zer to six feet
35:31
how good were they so they came up with this guy his name was JJ Hicks and he was a he played in the league for a few
35:38
years played in North Carolina State and he had a much higher percentage from Z to six feet than marish dmire and we’re
35:45
we’re sitting there like there’s no way there’s no way this is true so we pulled
35:50
up all of this guys makes from 0 to 6 feet and you know what we found out he was fantastic from 0 to one feet
35:58
but from one to six he never took a shot but because he never took a shot we
36:03
still counted like from zero to six feet great percentage Yeah great percentage but he was nowhere near the player of
36:10
mar so the in that case the data was wrong if we had made a decision based on
36:15
that we would have gone terribly wrong so a big part of analytics and sports is
36:21
figuring out what is actually um applicable and then how to apply it and
36:27
one thing we we’ve done is uh We’ve hired uh a young guy named will sheii
36:32
who if you’re an Indiana hooer you might remember him 10 years ago he’s All-American at Indiana really bright
36:39
guy and very analytically driven and still great on the court uh 30 years old
36:45
now um still gets out there with our guys and plays but his mind is very analytically driven but he also has this
36:52
basketball background so now the coaches are much more likely to listen to him
36:58
right rather than to someone who hadn’t played at that level and he’s now
37:04
integrating the numbers with the stuff that we’re doing on the floor and we’re able to zero in on the stuff that’s not
37:11
only important but accurate also if that make sense you need you need the you
37:16
need the human like overlay yes yes because I I I still think it’s you know
37:21
sports are more art than science and and we’ve evolved because of the scientific
37:27
part of it um but it’s still it’s you’re still human beings and and it’s still people
37:33
collaborating and working together uh but the science part is really important it’s just trying to find that that happy
37:39
medium so you’re doing your R&D trips uh when you’re not going to be coaching Team USA this summer I’m
37:46
thinking next phase for the war it’s super interesting to think about what’s next for the Warriors right like you know I’m I’m sure everyone’s calling the
37:52
end of an ero way too early but it’s got to be a super interesting puzzle for you so I’d love
37:58
to hear you talk about like you know how you’re thinking about it you obviously don’t know what you’re going to conclude yet about what you got to do for next season I think but the warriors were
38:04
were very good second half like for the second half this year you’re a good team like top 10 in offense and defense do
38:10
you try and just like get to that earlier like what are you doing um and you’ve also talked about like wanting to
38:16
make sure that this era ends when it ends with I think you said honorably
38:22
with Grace With Dignity what does that mean that’s a compound question sorry yeah no I I think I think um what’s hard
38:29
in sports is that inevitably every team every um era is going to to fade right
38:37
and that’s where we are now I mean it’s been um 10 years since I’ve been there
38:42
really 12 years since the team got really good and um so we had a lot of
38:49
amazing years in there but inevitably players get older um you know Andre is
38:54
not in the gym anymore he’s here at this conference right that that hurts our team a little bit right and same thing
38:59
with Steph and clay and Draymond they’re all on the decline and it’s rare that you just
39:06
automatically you know just reshuffle the deck and come up with a really talented group it’s not going to happen
39:12
right away so as the team declines I I’ve talked to the guys about the importance of um you know going out the
39:21
right way like you want to do it with dignity you want to you know you don’t want to lose uh um the soul of who you
39:29
are because if you can maintain your your soul your culture then the the the
39:35
team can continue to thrive albeit not
39:41
with the same record but with the same processes and as you start to build your
39:46
team with young Talent hopefully those same values those same uh U that same
39:52
vibe that you have in the gym can be there and it sets up the next run that’s
39:57
pretty cool to think about okay Olympics
40:03
that’s an incredible roster I mean ridiculous but the rest of the world
40:08
plays pretty well too yeah how how are you approaching that how are you and your staff approaching that yeah I mean
40:14
we we we have this is basically like the 92 Dream Team this is the 24 version of
40:21
that I mean it literally is all the best player it’s LeBron James and and Steph Curry and Kevin Durant and uh Joel
40:28
embiid and Anthony Edwards I mean it’s the very best incred player yeah it’s going to be uh
40:34
amazing um one of my first thoughts is I’m going to have to sit two or three
40:40
Hall of Famers every game you know you can only play nine or 10 there’s 12 guys on the roster so I’ve already assigned
40:47
one of my assistant coaches to be in charge of playing time I figured that one out that’s good um but no the real
40:55
problem is that um we are not I don’t know if you remember Charles Barkley in 92 you know making fun of the angolan
41:02
team as they beat him by 70 points we’re not playing you know the angolan team
41:09
from ’92 we’re we’re playing uh amazing teams um you know Serbia Canada uh
41:15
Germany um all these teams are loaded with NBA talent and continuity and and
41:21
the FBA game is very different from the NBA game so it will not be easy despite having this this load roster it’s going
41:28
to be fun though sounds fun no no you didn’t divulge any secrets about what we’re going to do but you shouldn’t we
41:33
got to we got to you know I know this is supposed to be a International Group and it is but you know I don’t want you to
41:39
ruin our chances okay great teacher in your background
41:44
I’m sorry a great teacher in your background a teacher who you just who you remember who inspired you who turned
41:50
you onto a book an idea anybody honestly my my my coaches were my favorite
41:55
teachers you know I mean uh uh I think Phil Jackson was probably the best
42:01
teacher that I had in terms he would give us books uh throughout the year um
42:07
he was an intense reader um he would think about each person and pick a book
42:14
that related to that person’s background you remember a book that he gave you oh yeah he gave me cormack McCarthy’s All
42:20
the Pretty Horses he knew about my background in Arizona in the southwest and um but he was a f fascinating guy
42:28
and remains um a mentor to me and and uh I I think um the most most unique coach
42:37
um and I think Phil in a lot of ways helped um change uh the the culture and
42:43
coaching to where we are now this is so healthy what’s happening in sports in at
42:48
every level now you’re getting coaches who are so much more in tune with the
42:54
connection with the athlete rather than the dominance over the athlete and it’s
42:59
it’s just so much better for for for every athlete of every age to feel a connection and to to feel inspired
43:06
rather than feel intimidated because growing up my coaches U you know were
43:13
they came from a different era where you were supposed to be you know afraid of authority figure yeah yeah
43:18
yeah you we have this saying here about being we we try to be nice winners I feel like that’s you like you’re like
43:25
and everybody in the NBA says you’re the nicest guy in the NBA but they don’t mean you’re a push I mean you have
43:30
you’re a pretty passionate guy like you’ve got some you got some good stories in your in your in your professional background like you don’t
43:35
back down how do you how do you do both um yeah I I think I was uh as a kid
43:44
I had the worst temper you know when I would lose I would I would cry and throw stuff and and it was it was really hard
43:50
to manage that and um learn how to temper it um I finally did when I was 47
43:57
that was that’s when I realized I can be actually be a good sport um I’m exaggerating a little bit but it it I
44:03
think I had to have some success you know uh before I could actually realize
44:08
that it’s it’s okay to lose sometimes you know when you’re young and you’re
44:13
fiery and you’re insecure like I was you know everything just seems like you’re
44:19
fighting for everything and I think I got to a place in my professional life where I you know I had some success um
44:27
and and was able to um feel confident in that and confident enough to recognize
44:33
the reality of life which is that we’re all going to go through wins and losses and ups and downs but um it was a it was
44:41
a hard grind one of the reasons I picked up that book uh intergame of tennis is because I beat myself to death as a
44:48
player was so hard on myself and it was unhealthy and um and so it took it took
44:54
time and it took me to to have some success to maybe um temper my my uh emotions a
45:02
little bit there’s a like there a million things to talk about I think what I’ll
45:07
just I mean compassion competitiveness mindfulness Joy what an incredible like
45:14
we we got to think about like if we’re doing that if we’re integrating that but I think all I’ll say is this is
45:19
incredible you’re incredible good luck and Paris thank you so much for being here this is awesome so thanks thank you
45:24
dve appreciate it