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Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Steve Kerr misses practice, goes for medical testing as Mike Brown continues to coach Warriors

OAKLAND — At times this season, after a defensive mistake or bad turnover, Kevin Durant would look over toward the sideline and see Steve Kerr, head in his hands, and think the coach was furious with what just transpired on the court.

“Then I’d look back when we’d make a great play and he’d look the same,” Durant said.

Kerr’s post-surgery symptoms — of which precede Durant’s arrival in the Bay Area — continue to plague the Warriors’ head coach, worsening over the past week and now extending his indefinite playoff absence beyond the first round.

Kerr wasn’t at Warriors practice on Wednesday, their first in preparation for Round 2. Instead, Kerr was down at Stanford Medical Center getting testing. Interim coach Mike Brown ran the practice and said, until general manager Bob Myers tells him otherwise, he will proceed as if he’s coaching the rest of the postseason.

“This (basketball) stuff doesn’t matter, man,” Durant said. “We want him healthy for the rest of his life. That’s what our main concern is. We’re not trying to get him healthy just so he can coach us in the playoffs. We’re trying to get him healthy so he can live an everyday life.”

Brown met with reporters in Kerr’s place again on Wednesday. He said that the two had an extended talk on Tuesday night, after the Jazz and Clippers game, discussing gameplan and preparation of their two potential second round opponents. But Brown didn’t want to comment on Kerr’s health, saying he would leave that to general manager Bob Myers.

“Don’t want mixed messages and I don’t necessarily know everything,” Brown said.

About an hour after practice ended, Myers went on 95.7 The Game and answered some questions about Kerr. He confirmed that the coach was getting medical testing in Palo Alto on Wednesday and didn’t put a timetable on any firm decision, but did say, for Kerr to return to the sidelines, he needed to feel better for a string of days, not just one or two.

“For him to live the life that he wants to live, we need to figure it out,” Myers told the station. “I think we will.”

During Kerr’s seven-minute meeting with reporters in Portland on Sunday, in which he announced his absence, he said that at some point in the coming days, he’d like to reach a conclusion about whether or not he can return to the sidelines this postseason, saying there “wouldn’t be a scenario” where he pops in and out depending on how he felt that particular day.

“I’m not going to do that to our team and our staff,” Kerr said. “We’re hoping over the next week or two — whatever it is — I can sort of make a definitive realization or deduction or just feel that I’m going to do it or I’m not.”

The Warriors will be inactive until at least Sunday and — should the Clippers and Jazz series go seven games — may not start Round 2 until Tuesday. The team is taking Thursday completely off before returning to practice on Friday. Kerr has a window of time to figure this out.

But in the meantime, Brown will continue conferring with Kerr and guiding a ship both players and coaches say won’t be altered much. Kerr has set the foundation, Brown is just following it.

“You hope it’s seamless,” Brown said. “I’ve been coaching a long time and even though Steve’s older than me — a lot older than me (laughs) — he’s been coaching for three years now and I’ve learned a ton from him. Not just X’s and O’s. Maybe (Gregg Popovich) rivals it, but he’s by far the best communicator I’ve been around. There’s no way I’ll be able to emulate that. Just being here a year, having the veterans we have, the staff we have, it’s made it, in my opinion, seamless.”

Players at Wednesday’s practice described it as typical, despite Kerr’s absence.

“When you make it about the players, when you make it about winning, all that other stuff really doesn’t matter,” Durant said. “(Kerr) coaches the game of basketball. Our whole coaching staff does. When it’s about basketball, not about trying to be an authority over us, just coaching us and teaching us the proper thing to do on the basketball court, it’s simple.”



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