DECEMBER 20: USA Basketball has made it official, announcing that Kerr has taken over as the head coach of the men’s national team, with Williams, Spoelstra, and Few joining him as assistants.
DECEMBER 10: Steve Kerr will be the next head coach for USA basketball, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. A deal is currently being finalized, and a formal announcement is expected soon.
Kerr, who served as an assistant to Gregg Popovich on this year’s gold-medal winning team in Tokyo, will take over for the FIBA World Cup in 2023 and the Paris Olympics in 2024 (Twitter link). His staff will include Suns head coach Monty Williams, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra and Gonzaga head coach Mark Few.
Kerr, 56, has been among the NBA’s most successful head coaches since being hired by the Warriors in 2014. He has led Golden State to three titles and five appearances in the NBA Finals.
The decision on Kerr represents Grant Hill‘s first major move since taking over as managing director of USA Basketball, Wojnarowski notes (Twitter link), adding that Hill spent several months meeting with candidates and assembled a coaching team that has experienced success in the NBA, college and internationally.
Marc Stein first reported in September that Kerr was viewed as the frontrunner to be Popovich’s successor for USA Basketball.
Good for Kerr. Probably the predictable and obvious move. So no surprise
he needs to get right to work so usa don’t lose to mexico again.
It probably means Curry, Klay, and Green in 2024 barring injuries.
I’d say no. He doesn’t want to over use his own players LOL.
There’s a lot of truth to that but now he’s the head coach :) Seriously, it will be trio’s legacy celebrating event and it will most likely be trio’s last opportunity to go to Olympics.
Klay ain’t making it to the olympics 2 and a half years from now! I love the man but I honestly don’t think he’ll be the same again. Sure he’ll be good, but I don’t think he’ll be at an olympic or All-star level again. Maybe Victor Oladipo after-injury-type play.
Also like this from Kerr. Truly deserves it.
They just need him (Klay) to shoot it at an Olympic level… he can do that in his sleep.
Kerr is only like 50 and has 8 rings
Give him credit on this year Warriors record
Many people do. The only people who don’t are those jealous of his success or who hate him for his politics.
Great choice!
Great choice but not my first choice. Jay Wright was 1a to Kerr’s 1b for me.
Jim Boylen is grinding his teeth and opening his hip flask, muttering under his breath about toughness.
I’m a bit biased on this.. but I think it was the wrong choice… Erik Spoelstra literally changed the entire NBA when he turned Chris Bosh into a 3 point shooting center. He called it “positionless basketball in 2010″… now guys like Dwight Howard, Andre Drummond, DeMarcus Cousins and others are irrelevant… while guys like Jokic, Embiid, Vucevic, etc etc have become the NBA standard…. 2 years ago Spo switched how the Heat played defense and started using the zone.. something ignored for 10-20 years by other coaches… the Heat made the NBA finals. Now every team uses the zone again. Meanwhile Kerr was fired for his poor choices in Phoenix, and lucked into a loaded roster, yet could do nothing when they didn’t have 3-4 all-stars on the floor. If you ask NBA players.. Erik Spoelstra is the best coach in the NBA.. and he deserved this honor.
I hear you and I don’t disagree with you. Erik Spoelstra is amazing. Probably doesn’t get enough credit. But you’re a little off on your other references.
Don Nelson invented positionless basketball. Manute Bol started shooting 3-pointers and Tom Tolbert and Rod Higgins were six foot seven centers. Even in Milwaukee Nelson started with the small forward/point guard position (Paul Pressey) and used his actual guards as wings and scorers.
As far as the zone defense, I agree with you again here. Erik Spoelstra is fantastic and innovative.
I don’t remember Shaq, Ewing, and David Robinson becoming irrelevant as Manute Bol and others took over the NBA.. do you? Could you tell me when Nelson won an NBA title with an innovative new system? When Bosh made the switch.. every team in the NBA followed and the “traditional center” went away. The Heat even ironically tried to bring back the traditional 5 in Hassan Whiteside… and it failed lol… Spo changed the NBA forever… just because someone else tried it before him doesn’t mean it worked.
I remember Bob McAdoo playing centre and shooting the long ball…
BTW jeremyn you do realize that DMC is a much better 3 point shooter than C-Bosh, right?
DMC was a rapper I met at a comic convention a couple months ago… TMC was the nickname of three players (Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond)…. they never won anything more than a playoff series. Chris Bosh has 2 rings and should have more. The rest of the NBA mirrored Bosh.. not Chris Mullin…. see the difference now? (Mullin was also a PF not a center, a stretch 4 has been in the NBA for 50 years)
Chris Mullins was a Small Forward/Shooting Guard.
If you mean Cousins, and not referencing what the other guy was (Don Nelson) … Cousins developed that because of “the Bosh effect” and then started getting hurt every other day.
It’s all because of the rules that three points shooting began to be popular. If we still had the 80’s and 90’s rule the three points shoot would be guarded better with the hand check . Spoelstra Is a good coach but he did have the best team for four years and won two of them . Coaching is overrated in this era because of the weak defensive rules
It could also be that the Association didn’t allow 3 point shoots until the 79-80 season, 33 years after is was formed. So, a lot players and coaches were not used to it.
Wow!! You must really hate Steve Kerr. You get a few things wrong. Dirk Nowitzki came into the league before Bosh and was a much better 3 point shooter. It is not even close. Kerr was not fired from Phoenix. You can’t fire an owner. They also had some pretty good years when he was there.
this guys a real piece of work
Pop handing both his jobs to GS guys