If the NBA Finals started today, Steve Kerr still wouldn’t be on the sidelines with the Golden State Warriors.
Fortunately, the Finals don’t tip off today. But Cavs-Warriors, Part III does begin on Thursday, a mere two days from now. And based off what Kerr said on Monday, per NBC Sports’ Rosalyn Gold-Onwude?, it doesn’t sound like he anticipates being ready by then:
Steve Kerr just shared he's not feeling well enough to coach a game today.
— Rosalyn Gold-Onwude (@ROSGO21) May 29, 2017
Broken-record style, this won’t faze the Warriors. Acting head coach Mike Brown has done a terrific job, and Kerr was able to travel with the team during the Western Conference Finals. Brown admits that he doesn’t always run the same offensive sets Kerr embraces, but the rotations have been familiar, if close to unchanged, and, well, the team has yet to lose a game.
This nevertheless sucks. It just plain sucks. Kerr is a good head coach and a terrific human. To see him miss the most important part of his team’s season, when he already missed a large chunk of last year with these same back issues, is the worst. It’s great that he has players and assistants in place who can go about business as usual without him. But not seeing him on the sidelines, to be a part of the immediacy of postseason competition, just plain blows. You want to see him out there, if only because it means he must not be in pain, but also because he deserves to partake in this latest Warriors.
So, to sum up, this sucks, and it will continue to suck until Kerr is healthy enough to resume regular sideline duties.
Here’s at least hoping he’s not in unmanageable amounts of pain.
