It’s looking more and more like Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr won’t be returning to the sidelines before next season.
His still-uncertain timetable is our first clue. But Warriors general manager Bob Myers also revealed that Kerr, who is suffering from complications due to back surgery he had a couple years back, underwent a procedure to address the leaking in his spinal cord.
Here are the details, per the Bay Area News Group’s Anthony Slater:
Warriors owner Joe Lacob went on Bloomberg Radio on Friday and provided a minor update on Steve Kerr’s status. The ailing head coach, who was reportedly at the Duke Medical Center on Friday, underwent a spinal cord leak procedure, Lacob said. …
“It’s very unfortunate what’s happening here,” Lacob said. “He had a back surgery. Relatively common procedure almost two years ago now. And had a what is really a relatively uncommon thing happen. Which is the dura around the spinal cord got nicked. And you wind up having a spinal cord leak. And ultimately headaches and other symptoms. Bad headaches. Migraines. Unfortunately usually they patch that with a blood patch and it’s over. Either in a week or month. Whatever. And in his case for whatever reason they just haven’t been able to solve that problem. Hopefully it was solved yesterday he had another procedure. It’s gone on for nearly two years. Very unusual I believe. I have a medical background so I know a little bit about this. I’ve never really heard of many people having this problem for this long. We feel really bad for him, the players, everybody understands it. We just have to be in his court here and support whatever it takes for him to get back and I’m sure they will eventually solve it. Hopefully sooner rather than later and hopefully we’ll have him coaching on the court sooner rather than later.”
The Warriors are better than a well-oiled machine. They have safety nets for their safety nets for their safety nets, both on and off the court. Kerr’s absence won’t greatly impact their title run. But this still stinks.
You never wish serious health problems on anyone, and Kerr, while blessed with the opportunity to coach so much talent, is significantly responsible for establishing a culture and play style that transcends even his presence. To know that he isn’t able to bask in the Warriors’ latest title push to the fullest extent just plain sucks.
Still, his health is more important than anything else. The Warriors have plenty more championship runs in them, and the goal should be to make sure Kerr is ready for those, in addition to life beyond the margins.
