Some people might wonder why an NBA coach even cares about world politics. For Steve Kerr, it’s simple: He grew up with it.
Kerr was born in Lebanon and spent the majority of his childhood in the Middle East. His entire life changed on Jan. 18, 1984, though, when his father, Malcolm, was murdered by extremists in Beirut.
The Warriors coach recently shared with NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole in an exclusive interview how his father helped shape his world view.
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“Before my dad was killed, I remember night after night I’d get home, and he’d be typing on his typewriter, using the White-Out when he would make a mistake,” Kerr said of his dad, who was president of American University of Beirut at the time of his murder. “He’d have popcorn next to him. He was in his study listening to music and working. And then at 6 o’clock, the MacNeil-Lehrer Report would come on the TV, and my mom and dad would watch the world news and whatever was going on.
“And then at the dinner table, everything was being discussed, from world politics to -- I’d prefer to talk about the NBA, but that didn’t come up very often. I was pretty much silent, just sort of taking it all in. But I was exposed to all of that at a young age.
“When my dad died, I was 18. I was still, relatively, a kid, just beginning to grow up. And it shaped the way I thought about the world. It disillusioned me in many ways. And everything that’s happened since, I’ve always had the big-picture, global perspective in mind.”
In Part 2 of “Steve Kerr: Not Sticking To Sports,” the coach also discusses how America views itself in the world lens and why he believes Donald Trump was elected president two years ago.
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The interview, which will run in five installments, only can be viewed on the MyTeams by NBC Sports app, which can be downloaded for iOS and Android.
