Has Steve Kerr Had Enough?

Plainspokenness is an endangered attribute in pro sports. Players and coaches have become maddeningly mealy-mouthed, striving to avoid upsetting agents, sponsors, owners, fans, thin-skinned politicians, and whoever else might object. Not so with the Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who has publicly dubbed Donald Trump a “blowhard” who uses “racist, misogynist” words and is “ill-suited” to be President. (Trump, for his part, has called Kerr a “scared” “little boy.”) Kerr’s success is as rare as his candor. “I’m the luckiest guy in the N.B.A.’s history,” he said last weekend, as his twelfth coaching season came to a close, earlier than desired, during the play-in round. Kerr has won nine N.B.A. championships—more than any franchise but the Lakers and the Celtics—and counted Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Gregg Popovich, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Jimmy Butler among his coaches, teammates, and players. Not a bad group of co-workers.Butler’s A.C.L. tear, back in January, effectively doomed Kerr’s already slim chances of winning a tenth title with a graying core of star players. Ten rings would put him just three behind Phil Jackson, who was Kerr’s coach on the nineties Chicago Bulls team that became the N.B.A.’s first