The Golden State Warriors won the NBA Finals on Thursday when they eliminated the Boston Celtics in six games. The Warriors defeated the Celtics 103-90 at Boston’s Toronto Dominion Garden to win the best out of seven series four games to two.
A major reason for the Warriors win was because of the greatness of Golden State point guard Stephen Curry, who averaged 31.2 points per game during the Finals. However, Curry does not deserve all of the credit. A remarkable statistic from the 2022 NBA Finals is the fact that Warriors head coach Steve Kerr of Beirut, Lebanon has now won nine NBA Finals.
Of Kerr’s nine NBA Finals, five were as a player and four as a coach. As a player, Kerr was not the most skilled Chicago Bull. That was clearly Michael Jordan, the greatest National Basketball Association player of all-time. However, one cannot ignore the fact that Kerr was part of five Bulls and San Antonio Spurs teams that won the greatest team prize the NBA has to offer.
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Then as a coach, Kerr was the mastermind on the bench of a Warriors’s squad that has won the NBA Finals four times since 2015. You could make the argument that the 2015 and 2022 Warriors squads were more of a challenge for Golden State to come out on top. In those seasons the Warriors did not have co-superstar Kevin Durant, and had to rely on the greatness of Curry. But in order for the Warriors to get by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers thrice, and a talented Celtics squad led by Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum over this past week, the Warriors needed the coaching prowess and an organized strategical game plan that Kerr brought to the table and helped Golden State be victorious.
When you think of great basketball coaches, you think of Red Auerbach, John Wooden, Gregg Popovich and Phil Jackson. Maybe it is time we put Kerr, who has a career winning percentage of .682 in the regular season and .732 in the postseason as a coach in the conversation. Winning counts. Kerr did it as a player, and now as a coach. That is what makes him great.
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