Steve Kerr is taking what is expected to be a stacked Team USA roster to Paris for the Olympics next summer, where they will be the heavy gold medal favorites.
Then he’s walking away from coaching Team USA. Joe Varden of The Athletic asked Kerr if he would coach USA Basketball after Paris.
“No,” Kerr said bluntly when asked if he would coach Team USA after the Paris Games. “To me, it’s a two-year; it’s a cycle. Pop coached a World Cup and the Olympics, now it’s my turn to pass the baton. I think that’s kind of how it should be. Frankly, it’s a huge commitment too. I guess I think it was different the last go-around with Coach K (Mike Krzyzewski) and Jerry (Colangelo), when they were really establishing this culture and this system where guys had to commit for a couple years. Made sense for Coach K to stay on. But I think where we are now, one cycle and you move on.”
Kerr has had a long stint coaching Team USA. He was a lead assistant under Gregg Popovich for the 2019 World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics, where the USA won gold. After that, he took over in the big chair and led the USA to a fourth-place finish this past summer at the World Cup in the Philippines.
Kerr is also in the final year of his contract with the Golden State Warriors but has said he expects to stay on with the team beyond this season.
The logical successor for Kerr would be one of his top assistants, Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat or Tyronn Lue of the Los Angeles Clippers. Lue has spoken this year of the commitment it took this summer to be with Team USA but also said he felt “
energized” by the experience and being around coaches like Kerr, Spoelstra and Gonzaga’s Mark Few before the offseason.
