The Golden State Warriors seemed immortal.
In May 2014, Steve Kerr declined the New York Knicks and instead became the Warriors’ new head coach. That was one of the best decisions of his life.
The Warriors won their first championship in 40 years in Kerr’s first season — the first of five straight NBA Finals appearances. With Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and Kevin Durant, the Warriors cemented themselves as the modern dynasty by winning back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018.
Along the way, Curry won back-to-back NBA MVP awards in 2015 and 2016, Kerr won Coach of the Year (2016), and Green won Defensive Player of the Year (2017).
But in the years since Golden State’s latest ring in 2022, the Warriors have served as a humble reminder that the seemingly immortal are mortal all the same. Now, they’re at a crossroads.
Kerr’s contract expired when the Warriors lost their second Play-In Tournament game to the Phoenix Suns to end their season on April 17. In a new interview with The New Yorker’s Charles Bethea, Kerr shed some light on whether he’ll return to Golden State.
“This is a really interesting situation, and I’m very respectful of the organization and their place in the universe right now,” Kerr said. “And I know how this stuff works. Most coaching runs just last a certain amount of time, and then it’s best for everybody to move forward. And what we have to figure out is whether now is that time, because what complicates it is we still have Steph and Draymond.”
Green has a player option this summer, and Curry is under contract through next season.
“I don’t want to abandon those guys,” Kerr said. “If Steph and Draymond were retiring this year, I think this would be an easy decision: we all go out together, and the organization takes their new path. But it’s not that easy because I think Steph’s going to play another couple of years, and I think we can still do some good things together. But these are all conversations that will happen in the next week or two, and we’ll figure it out. And whatever happens, it’s going to end well. I know that, because it’s too important not to.”
As time was running out on the Warriors’ 111-96 loss to Phoenix, Kerr hugged Curry and Green on the sideline and said, “I don’t know what’s gonna happen next, but I love you guys to death. Thank you.”
Last week, Green opened up about the uncertainty on his podcast.
“If you ask me, I don’t know that he’s coming back,” Green said, in part. “If you want my opinion? Just all the talk that’s been going around, if you want my opinion, I think not. Just because it just feels like that. I hope so. I hope he’s our coach next year. I also hope I’m on this team next year. We also don’t know that. […] It felt like that was it.”
The saying goes that dynasties never end beautifully; otherwise, they’d never end. That couldn’t be truer of the Warriors’ 2025-26 campaign.
Curry missed 27 games with what’s commonly known as “runner’s knee.” The team lost All-Star Jimmy Butler for the season in January when he tore his ACL, and Moses Moody suffered a season-ending ruptured patellar tendon in March.
The Warriors finished the regular season with a 37-45 record but eked out a 126-121 win over the Los Angeles Clippers in their first Play-In game on April 15, behind vintage performances by Curry and Green. If that really was it, the Warriors gave us one last show.
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