Steve Kerr

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Ring of Honor: Steve Kerr Red Carpet Interview

Red carpet interviews with Steve Kerr, Toni Kukoc, Luc Longley, Artis Gilmore, Bob Love, Jason Caffey, Randy Brown, Bill Wennington and Ron Harper at the Ring of Honor Gala.

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Ring of Honor: Red Carpet Interviews

Sam Smith

Margot Kerr is as happily bewildered, at times, as husband Steve about all this. All this being Steve’s Golden State Warriors Thursday opening defense of their NBA title against the Cleveland Cavaliers as Steve goes for his seventh championship as a player and coach.

Seven rings! Watch out, Phil, he’s coming.

“I can’t even believe all this,” Margot was saying last week in Oakland after a Warriors conference finals victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. “I don’t even know how all this happened; I really don’t. I have no idea. It is a lot of luck, but he’s really a smart guy.”

It’s a promised NBA Finals, a rematch with Kerr’s record breaking Warriors featuring Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and perhaps the next evolution of basketball against LeBron James and his own stable of stars with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. It has the makings of a dramatic and climactic tale, though no more curious than the one continuing to be told around the travels of the Kerr clan.

The amazing journey of the Kerr family continues, and you wouldn’t really make it up because it’s, as the saying goes, too unrealistic.

It has so many unbelievable (that being sports’ most overused cliché, except it applies this time) chapters. There was Steve fortunate even to get a basketball scholarship to the U. of Arizona after offered none following high school, a 1988 second round pick of the Phoenix Suns hidden on the injured list as what seemed more a marketing tool with the Suns enduring a drug scandal. Then traded to Cleveland and then Orlando, where he couldn’t beat out guys like Litterial Green and John Battle, and after the 1992-93 season when he rarely played and basically out of the NBA after five years—though really five more than Kerr or his coaches ever figured he’d get--Kerr essentially applied to the Bulls for a tryout. This is not generally how things are done in the NBA.

“As a family, it was like if he could do it, do it,” said Margot. ‘It’s not like he had a career path laid out; wasn’t like he was going to law school or something. Honestly, he probably would have gone back to U. of A. He had done a year of grad school, he was going back in the summer. He was doing a sports administration program. He was taking summer classes and thinking of going back to grad school and being an assistant coach with Lute (Olson) or grad assistant. He didn’t think he was going to play that long.”

But life is about luck and timing and also taking advantage of your opportunities. And then being able to do something with it. Steve Kerr certainly proved he could.

Steve, baby faced with a welcoming personality, often has been described like a Huck Finn or Opie Taylor character, though a fiery competitiveness belies those quiescent comparisons. Margot, a Tucson native, met Steve at college. She’s got some of Harry Potter’s Hermione Granger in her, bright and positive and ready for adventure.

“I thought, sure, what the hell,” Margot recalled about the leap to Chicago.

They had this infant, and nowhere really to stay, and never really had been to Chicago, and there was hardly a guarantee. In fact, there wasn’t. Steve signed a one-year non-guaranteed minimum contract for what essentially was a Bulls tryout camp in the fall of 1993. Bulls general manager Jerry Krause put it this way back then: "He's a kid who can shoot the ball, play point and off guard. He has a chance (to make the team). We have a non-guaranteed spot. Steve wanted a shot. We'll see what (Trent) Tucker's health situation is and Corey's (Williams) improvement, a lot of things. It will spark some competition in training camp."

“We were so excited to play with Michael Jordan, a championship team and we get there and Michael retires,” Margot noted with a laugh. “Then he was like, ‘Hey, maybe I can get a roster spot.’”

Yes, Steve was the only one quietly applauding when Jordan retired for the first time in 1993.

“Then he had a good training camp,” said Margot. “We were living at that Residence Inn right next to the Berto Center; all three of us in one room, a little baby nine or 10 months old. It was interesting. But we were so worried. We had to every week tell the front desk if we were going to be there another week, something like that.

“There was no internet, twitter then, of course,” Margot notes. “Steve would get the newspaper and look for Phil’s comments. ‘Yeah, Steve Kerr had a good practice today.’ He’d feel excited about that.’”

Jordan returns to the NBA. He does take time out to beat up Kerr one day in practice, though two years later at the end of Game 6 in the 1997 Finals, it was Jordan looking for Kerr in another sense. Jackson had drawn up a (hopeful) game winning play for Jordan, who anticipated a Utah double team with John Stockton coming off Kerr. So Jordan in the frenzied huddle tells Kerr to be ready, that he was going to pass him the ball, and when Michael says that you better be ready. A career of shots, though, more importantly, a lifetime of challenging obstacles and doubts, and Steve was ready.

His 17-footer was the game winner before the Bulls knocked away the subsequent inbounds pass from the Jazz. The following season made it three championships with the Bulls, though no starts. Then it was a fourth consecutive championship as Kerr signed with the San Antonio Spurs for the 1998-999 season with the biggest contract of his playing career, five years and $11 million, and a reputation as if not the most prolific, the most accurate three-point shooter in NBA history. Kerr had a detour to the Portland Trailblazers in 2001-02 and then back for a final season with the Spurs as he proved vital again with a three-point shooting display to bail out the Spurs in the clinching Game 6 of the 2003 Western Conference finals.

The Spurs went on to title No. 2 while Kerr made it ring No. 5.

Then after a conference finals appearance as an executive with the Suns and analyst work on games for TNT, Kerr was about to repay a debt to Jackson for that playing chance in 1993 and coach the Knicks for Jackson as team president. Jackson had long told associates if he ever were to run a team, Kerr would be his coaching hire.

“That was one reason he wanted to come to the Bulls,” recalled Margot of that fateful turning point in 1993 for the Kerrs. “He knew the triangle, he knew the offense they were running. He’s played for Lenny Wilkins, Matty Guokas; he played with Scott Skiles, Cotton Fitzsimmons in Phoenix. He knew about their offense and watching the Bulls and seeing John Paxson (who was injured and close to retiring), he felt that was a great place for him to be as a shooter.”

Of course, Steve also thought Orlando was and took a $20,000 pay cut in 1992-93 to accommodate a trade to the Magic because he figured to be a perimeter fit with Shaquille O’Neal. It didn’t happen.

“He felt on paper they had the big guys in Orlando and they wanted shooters all around, but he barely played,” said Margot. “We never really thought he really was going to play in the NBA. Phoenix gave him a shot probably because they had a lot of issues with the drug stuff and they probably thought he was a U. of A. guy, local, clean cut and it will be good for business (to sell tickets in Tucson, also), basically such a great franchise and management, and it was tarnished a little. And then he really didn’t play, but what a wonderful organization with the Suns.

“So Cotton trades him to Cleveland where Gary (Fitzsimmons, Cotton’s son) was and Lenny was great, but he knew he really wasn’t going to play much,” said Margot. “But with Lenny and Wayne Embry, it was such a professional organization, high class, great ownership; you learn seeing that. Then the Orlando thing and I don’t think he had any other offers. I’m pretty sure he was a free agent with really nowhere to go and probably basically begged his way onto the Bulls.

“We had a little nest egg and bought a little house in Tucson. We were happy with that,” says Margot. “I don’t think we thought there was anything else. Then last year the championship, and this year, breaking the (Bulls’ wins record) record; can’t believe that, also. It’s all so weird.”

And wonderful, and if no one quite deserves all that good fortune, no one also begrudges it to a couple and a family who just enjoy the ride like appreciative tourists. And who never forget that time in Chicago, where it all changed.

steve-kerrs-unlikely-journey

Steve Kerr's unlikely journey

Phil Jackson said his Los Angeles Lakers team that won a pair of championships with Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant and was in three consecutive NBA Finals always talked about it.

"My teams in the Lakers years would always say, ‘We want to break that record,'" Jackson recalled. "I was, ‘Good luck.'"

Because 1995-96 for the Bulls was the Perfect Rainbow of an NBA season, even with some rainbow colored hair. So many incredible and incomprehensible factors came together to form the most beautiful basketball sign, a reflection of the brilliance of Michael Jordan, the refraction with Dennis Rodman and dispersion of unique and varied talents among a committed group of individuals to form this tremendous spectrum of brilliant achievement that lit up the NBA for one special and shining season.

It was the 72-10 Bulls season of 1995-96, that memorable time when these amazing elements came together to form for a sporting moment the most perfect of basketball teams.

The Bulls that season set the all time NBA record with 72 wins, the first team ever to break the 70-win mark. The Bulls would go on to have the best two and three-year records in league history thanks to that 72-10 start. And that 72-10 record was with their last three losses that season all by a single point and in often in dispute.

The Bulls won a record 44 games at home and 37 to start the season, both league records, along with 33 road wins. Their margin of victory of 12.3 per game tied for the best ever. Their 39-2 home record was the second best. Jordan led the league in scoring and was regular season and Finals MVP and all-defensive first team along with Rodman and Scottie Pippen. Jordan and Pippen were all-NBA first team. Toni Kukoc was Sixth Man winner, Jackson was Coach of the Year and Jerry Krause was Executive of the Year. Rodman led the league in rebounding and Steve Kerr was No. 2 in three-point shooting. Jordan and Pippen tied an all-time record when they both scored at least 40 points in a game. There has never been a team sports domination quite like the 1995-96 Bulls.

"It was one of those years where everything went right," recalled Kerr, now the coach of the Golden State Warriors, who last season won 67 games. "There was incredible motivation; and everything clicked. As motivated as Michael always was, that year was another few degrees higher based on what he had been through, the absence from the game, the loss the previous year to Orlando. The motivation was just incredible. It carried on the entire season and that's want made it so remarkable. That was all part of it in training camp and the mode he set, the competition level in the scrimmages and the practices; he set the bar really high and he was ferocious. That was just a byproduct of the tone he set right from the beginning.

"Any sort of big game that had anything special about it brought out the best in us," said Kerr. "I remember the Houston game and they had Barkley and Hakeem and Drexler (and were defending champions) and they were going to be our equivalent in the Western Conference. We went to Houston and really took it to them (double digit win). The Lakers game when Magic came back to play and in the Forum and we hammered them (by 15), the four game sweep of Orlando (in the playoffs). That was supposed to be the clash of titans; we sweep them. It seemed like the bigger the challenge, the better that team played.

"I tell people all the time that record will never be broken," insists Kerr. "It's just impossible. That's going to be like DiMaggio's hit streak; it's just not going to happen. Everything has to go right and even then it doesn't matter. Everything went right for us last season and we won 67 games. Five games is a pretty big difference when you are talking about an 82-game season. Everything went right for us with the Bulls and we had Michael. That's the thing; if we ever got to a point where we were going to lose or we looked like we were going to lose, he would just take over. And there aren't guys like that anymore; guys like that don't exist anymore. Kobe was pretty close; he probably came the closest. LeBron's not like that. He's phenomenal in his own right. But Michael was so unique, so gifted, so motivated, so talented that he sort of transcended everything and I just don't see that happening again."

It really all started the previous May in the playoffs when the Bulls lost to the Orlando Magic, advertised as the next great NBA dynasty, in a six-game playoff series, the clinching loss at home. Horace Grant from the first three Bulls title teams had defected to the Magic as a free agent and had a big series. Nick Anderson had mocked Jordan after Orlando stole the first game on a Jordan turnover with Jordan wearing his new No. 45 jersey–"No. 45 doesn't explode like No. 23 used to. No. 45 is not No. 23. I couldn't have done that to No. 23–on his return to the NBA the previous March from baseball.

Jordan changed back to his No. 23 jersey. The NBA fined Jordan for the uniform change. But the Bulls' lack of a power forward to replace Grant combined with the strength and depth of the young Magic team proved too much for Jordan and the Bulls. Orlando won and went to the NBA Finals, eventually losing to the Houston Rockets.

"After that last game against Orlando the whole mood was we underachieved, that we're a way better team; we were not ready," said Toni Kukoc. "Michael admitted he wasn't basketball ready and he's going to take just a little time off and start preparing for the next season. And then everybody assumed if he is going to do that everybody else should do the same thing. Everybody came to camp in really good basketball shape. (Ron) Harper was one in really good shape and he got the role of the point guard. That atmosphere was: We are a better team than this, be physically ready and start playing from the start and see what happens."

Though Jackson admits he was initially worried about Jordan's preparation.

It was almost two years away from the game after retiring after the 1993 championship and beginning a quixotic adventure in professional baseball after the murder of his father. Jordan returned to the Bulls in March, 1995 to much acclaim, if not outright excellence. And now Jordan had gone Hollywood.

He was filming the Space Jam movie. And Jackson wondered how that was appropriate for a player who came back at less than his best with career low shooting and scoring other than in his 1985-86 injury season when he had playing time limits.

"I was concerned about Michael being in Hollywood," Jackson admitted. "Everyone was telling me, ‘No no, he's on it, basketball is his priority even though he's doing Space Jam. Everybody is out there in L.A. and this has become the place to be, in Michael's games if you are invited.'"

With Grant's departure, the Bulls were overpowered at power forward. Bulls managing partner Jerry Reindorf said he recalled Jackson saying often, "We need someone to fetch the ball."

Jackson submitted a list with five top power forwards who might be available in trade or as free agents, players like Derrick Coleman and Jayson Williams. There were complications, but assistant general manager Jim Stack was lobbying heavily for Dennis Rodman. The erratic former Pistons provocateur was in San Antonio and seemingly melting down in the playoffs with bizarre behavior. He was deemed around the NBA too toxic. But with just a year left on his contract, Bulls general manager Krause was persuaded by Stack to take a chance.

"It became with the team, ‘Would you accept this guy?'" Jackson said. "I interviewed him the day before camp started; then I addressed the team. I talked about the addition of Dennis: ‘Guys are going to have to be tolerant; it's not going to be a jealousy situation.' I've always tried to make the rules to work for everybody; but he's a guy who's not going to shoot for an hour and a half because he doesn't shoot. He rides a bike and will be ready. I told him I will fine him for every game late, but not the three-strike rule. It didn't start well. I came in. He wouldn't stand (or shake hands). Then he's saying, ‘I deserve more money, I'm a better player, I'm not getting my due.' and I'm telling him, ‘If you play, this is about a team reward, this isn't about potential. This team pays on productivity. You'll be compensated for what you do.' He met me the next morning at the training center and we went through the building. Upstairs he was very interested in my Native American stuff in the team room. We seemed to have a Native American kind of connection."

It was more than power forward, though. The Bulls had subtly been in decline in the third title year and endured only through the determination of Jordan, barely escaping the Knicks in the conference finals. The Bulls had a magical season of sorts in 1993-94 without Jordan, a controversial foul call in the conference semifinals against the Knicks, many believe, keeping the Bulls out of the Finals again.

But the Bulls were convinced Jordan would not return to basketball. Scottie Pippen, who had impressively led the Bulls that season in probably the best season of his career, also was convinced Jordan would not return. He badgered Jackson and management for help in the form of a shooting guard, the top free agent available and his close friend, Ron Harper. Harper was a transcendent athlete coming out of Miami U., and one reason the Cleveland Cavaliers of the late 1980s were rated higher than the Bulls. Harper wasn't as good as Jordan, but Harper was so athletic Jordan couldn't dominate his position like he did against so many other teams. But Harper would be traded to the Clippers and tore his ACL in January 1990. Harper returned to be a top scorer, but not the athlete he was. Still, he had averaged about 20 points per game. But Harper could not adjust to the offense and in his first season with the Bulls and he regressed more than any player in the NBA, averaging 6.9 points and playing behind Pete Myers despite receiving one of the richest contracts in team history.

"Jerry Reinsdorf always said guys in basketball maintain their averages year to year, but in baseball you can't depend on a guy," said Jackson. "He said a guy can hit .300 and then be .240. There weren't the swings in basketball. But Harper did. I had seen what we could be after the Orlando series. We (also) needed a big guard at that time; rotations were important. Tall guards to get after (Anfernee) Hardaway and (Nick) Anderson. They had Brian Shaw. We needed a big guard corps, so we allowed BJ (Armstrong) to be exposed (in the expansion draft). I asked Michael (to start) to play point guard; not until later that year did we realize any of those three guys, Pippen, Harper or Michael, could take on a guard (defensively) and we were very effective. Michael probably struggled more than those two did defensively playing at the top of the floor. He was more comfortable playing on the wing."

So the pieces for a team were coming into place, if not certain. There was Rodman to replace the rebounding, Harper to help defend against the big backcourts. And there were the holdovers who mostly showed up after Jordan's first retirement in 1993, disappointed and under siege. They had eyed the Bulls as a place to collect championship rings from the periphery. Now they were in the spotlight. But they learned.

"Everybody matured from a basketball standpoint and understood the game, understood what was needed to be done," said Kukoc. "The new guys were going into their third years, Steve and Bill (Wennington) and myself and Luc (Longley) and other guys. So I think we got that triangle offense down, understood how it functions and, obviously, when you have guys like Michael, Scottie, Dennis, Harper you feel really good playing on the defensive end as well."

So the elements were coming together to complete a great team on paper. But there's that indefinable quality that so few can bring, the relentless nature. Sure, Jordan was always competitive to a fault. But this was something they'd never seen before.

"We understood from the start Michael was upset losing in the playoffs the year before," said Wennington, now a Bulls radio broadcaster. "I think it was within the first week or couple of days of practice and I'm talking to Steve Kerr and he's saying ‘Mike is playing with a big chip on his shoulder.'"

(Kerr, by the way, had a big bruise under his eye as that was when Jordan punched him in the face during a rough practice session.)

"We looked at each other and said, ‘This could be a real interesting year.' We didn't know how interesting," recalled Wennington. "But you could tell right away it was going to be a different kind of year."

How different no one could imagine, though it wasn't completely clear early in the season.

Yes, the Bulls won their first five games, but against weaker teams. The first big test was regular season Game 6 in Orlando against the defending Eastern champion Magic with Shaq and the dynamic Hardaway, the latter becoming the new model for the best backcourt player. Hardaway was spectacular with 36 points, outplaying Jordan as the Magic won in Orlando.

The Bulls returned home and the NBA world had made up it's mind: It was Hardaway's World now. Remember the L'il Penny alter ego character? Air Jordan was now to be a thing of the past. There was a new star. Jordan, predictably, was determined. And a pattern would develop.

"I remember losing to Orlando early," said Kerr. "Then we rattled off a run of maybe 10 in a row."

Actually, it was five, a loss and then 13 straight wins.

"After the first month of the season we realized how good we were," said Kerr. ‘It was just sort of a shock if we did lose. And then automatically when we did lose, we'd soon just come out the next game with an anger that came from Michael. He didn't ever want to lose.

Losing one game would spur the next 10-game streak and we'd keep going from there."

The Bulls went out on their Western Conference circus trip, winning five of six as they lost in Seattle. That would be the other major contender with Orlando. It was a wearying trip and the Bulls headed into Vancouver at the end of the trip 11-2. Jordan, in one of those rare not in the air occasions, was dragging as well. The lowly, 15-win Grizzlies that season were leading the Bulls late when a backup guard named Darrick Martin, who had played in some of those summer games in Hollywood, ran by Jordan on the Bulls bench yelling at Jordan that he knew they were going to win. Yes, you know what comes next.

Jordan went back into the game, scored 19 points in the last six minutes (he had just 10 before) and the Bulls won going away. "I told you not to trash talk me, little man," Jordan chided as the game ended.

"By Christmas, New Year's we found ourselves seven, eight, 10 games in front of second place," recalled Kukoc. "So we just kind of started focusing on our basketball, our game, the way we played. Heard a couple times, ‘Let's go through the next month without a loss.' Stuff like that. It wasn't important that much the team we were playing against; the main focus was on our game, the way we played, the way we needed to execute, the way we needed to understand what is happening on the court more than, ‘Oh, we are playing New York, we are playing Orlando.' It was all about the way we played."

Now the Bulls were really rolling, 23-2 before a narrow loss in Indiana and then 18 straight wins for a 41-3 start as they rolled into Los Angeles amidst the hype of Magic Johnson's return and then dominated the Lakers. The conference race was basically over even with Orlando winning 60 games that season.

"People started talking about (70 wins)," recalled Wennington. "I remember talking to a guy, him saying we can do it. But it was mostly early and it was, ‘Let's play and see what happens.' I know in the media everyone was denying it when we were 30-3, but at that point guys were thinking about it. Like. ‘Heck, something could happen here, let's try to make it happen.' That was before All Star break.

"With Phil another goal was the amount of wins doesn't matter; our goal is to get to the playoffs and win the playoffs," said Wennington. "He said, ‘We are not going to worry about numbers. We are going to worry about where we need to be in the division and place ourselves for the playoffs.' He was always deflecting and distracting us from specific numbers. It was Jason Caffey's rookie year and I remember walking in the locker room one time and Jason was looking at me and shaking his head and saying, "Is it always like this?" I turned and looked at him and said, ‘Jason you need to pay attention to what is going on with this team because it is never like this. This is freaking amazing what is going on now; it freakin' doesn't happen.'"

The Bulls went to Denver after the emotional victory in Los Angeles and everything else that can occupy you in Los Angeles and got behind by 25 points at halftime. The Bulls actually came back to take the lead with Jordan scoring 39 points. But they ran out of fuel and the Nuggets won to make the Bulls 41-4.

"We had a start like that our second year after we won our first championship (1991-92, 37-5) and Jerry Reinsdorf sent me a note that said, ‘I hope you are not trying to break the all time best record,'" Jackson related. "I was like, No, we're just playing.'

"They just liked to win every game," Jackson said of that 1995-96 team. "Didn't take games off. That was a team that really liked it. Michael was out to prove something, that his comeback was going to be for real, the him you saw in the playoffs last season was a guy who wasn't at his peak in basketball performance level. He wanted to drive that home. Dennis was proving to be what he always has been, a great rebounder and defender and disturber. He was great at it. It fit like a glove. Toni and Dennis played center. We had a mobile, manipulative, ball handling group of guys. People had a very hard time against that lineup."

The Bulls had their only back to back losses that season losing in Phoenix the next game as Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson got a bit of revenge for that 1993 Finals. But then the pattern reemerged: Seven straight wins, a loss in Miami and then six straight wins to get to 54-6.

"There was no letup even during practice," Wennington recalled. "He (Jordan) was 100 percent all the time, pushing everybody and challenging everybody and going at guys from the get go. He was really focused on what needed to happen and what he was going to do himself. But also the guys around him who were taking time off. He kind of let it be known the only reason you didn't practice was if you were dead or at least couldn't walk.

"I remember one day being the last getting taped and I'm in the locker room and we're going to start in 15 or 20 minutes," Wennington related. "Ron Harper and Toni Kukoc were in the training room and had let it be known they weren't going to practice. While I'm getting taped, Michael comes in and says, ‘Harp what are you doing?' He said his knee was a little sore. ‘I'm sitting out today.' Michael says heck with that. ‘Get on the floor! We don't need you in here.' Then he looks at Toni and says ‘What's wrong with you?' Toni says, ‘My hand, my thumb hurts.' Michael says, ‘No, we don't need either of you guys in there; we don't need anyone in here. We need you out there. Unless you can‘t walk you are out there.' They got up, got taped and got out there. That was kind of it for everyone. You didn't sit out practice unless you were injured badly. If you sat out, you weren't playing.

"Talk to a lot of guys and they'll tell you our practices were harder than the games," Wennington added. "Competitive every day, pushed ourselves every day. Not two hour practices; shorter later in season, but had an edge and competition. James Edwards was with us that season. Even he knew this was special. He said when he was in Detroit with the Bad Boys they played hard, but it wasn't like this, pushing every day and working it."

The Bulls had three of their former hated rivals from the Pistons on that 1995-96 team in Rodman, John Salley and James Edwards, the latter two mostly there for an eventual hack-a-Shaq if needed. They played on Pistons teams that won consecutive titles with three straight Finals appearances when they averaged 59 wins per season. It was not like this.

"The thing I saw was no letup, no complacency," said Edwards, now a Detroit businessman. "Every game they went out like it was their first game or last game; once we got closer and closer to that record they played stronger and stronger every game. Even that last home game losing by a point to Indiana on a call."

It was becoming the NBA Finals shuffle for the Bulls. They were so dominant they finally even had to remind themselves there was more to this.

"Ron Harper had those t-shirts made up that read, ‘It don't mean a thing without the ring," noted Kerr. "It wasn't something we talked about a whole lot, more that we were just riding the momentum."

It carried through the end of the season, the 70th win in Milwaukee in Game 79 as TV helicopters followed the Bulls bus up I-94 to Milwaukee in a national event. The Bulls would close 72-10 and then sweep Miami to open the playoffs, take New York in five, the Knicks' lonely win in overtime, and then turn the anticipated duel with the Magic into a rout and four-game sweep.

O'Neal was so flummoxed he almost didn't come to the last game and soon left Orlando as a free agent for the Lakers.

The Bulls were 11-1 in the playoffs. They went into the series with a Western Conference champion Seattle team that won 64 games and won the first three games for a 14-1 playoff start. It was one game to the title and a record playoffs, too. The media celebrated the Bulls as the greatest team ever for two off days in Seattle and the Bulls finally took a breath. They then lost twice. But they returned to Chicago and shut down the Supersonics for a double digit victory and the 1996 championship that became so expected but took more work and effort than anyone could expect.

"The team had spirit and energy and had great fun," said Jackson. "It was an adult group of guys; we did not have a lot of young players. It was a great team. It didn't have terrific size; we bet on Luc being our stopper against Shaq because he was unafraid and had a big body and he could hold the charge. We could come down and double and he was a good passer from the high post.

"We never anticipated Michael would return back to the way he was, if not better," said Jackson. "He was more of a post up scorer, get to the basket and still score, amazing. Scottie was at the top level of his game and had a leadership role that was very strong. We weren't huge like that team we had in the 90s, the first three peat with Horace and Bill (Cartwright) and Stacey (King) and Scott Williams. But with Dennis as a post player defending centers and being active and stripping and knocking the ball away, the length of the defenders on the outside and Toni being as long and active as he was, defensively what that team could do was impressive. (Assistant) Jimmy Rodgers had been with the Celtics and seen the great teams and he was awed by the way this team played."

Likely never to be seen again or duplicated.

72-10

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The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Chicago Bulls. All opinions expressed by Sam Smith are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Chicago Bulls or its Basketball Operations staff, parent company, partners, or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Bulls and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.

By Sam Smith | 12.6.2014 | 9:15 a.m. CT

There is no proven formula to produce a great NBA coach. Red Auerbach and Phil Jackson couldn’t be more different, Red the cigar smoking city kid who didn’t play and Phil the meditating small town kid who did. Gregg Popovich and Chuck Daly didn’t play in the pros; Pat Riley and Larry Brown did, often excelling. Though there generally is one trait common among the great ones, which is an ability to communicate, a mastery of human understanding without any training or degree, a concern for individuals amidst the harsh demands and generally a wry outlook on their crazy world. Having really good players also seems to help. Steve Kerr has those good players on his Golden State Warriors, who come into the United Center to play the Bulls Saturday as both statistically, and perhaps empirically, the best team in the NBA. They have the best record at 16-2 and 9-1 on the road, off to the best start in franchise history. They are ranked No. 1 both in offense and defense, the best shooting team in the league that also holds opponents to the lowest shooting percentage. They’re the most unselfish team, leading the NBA in assists, and the most dominant in leading the NBA in margin of victory. And All-Star forward David Lee has only played seven minutes all season because of a hamstring injury. The Warriors with MVP candidate Stephen Curry and backcourt mate Klay Thompson are this young season’s version of both Lakers’ Showtime and Celtics’ efficiency. They’re more fun to watch and more difficult to play with a deep and versatile lineup. And in his rookie season coaching, former Bull Kerr if he never much dunked shows he has the right stuff for being an elite NBA coach. “The way I’m coaching is the totality of my experience under a lot of different people,” Kerr said in an interview Friday. “Not just Phil and Pop (his coaches in Chicago and San Antonio, where he was on five title teams). Cotton Fitzsimmons and Lenny Wilkens and Lute Olson; you sort of take a little from each person. But what they all told me was to be yourself. They said you have to be yourself, that players will know if you are trying to do something that is not you. “I like humor, I like keeping things loose,” said Kerr, noted for his wry and sarcastic view of the world. “The thing I took from Pete (Carroll, Seattle NFL coach and a friend) is we do play music during practice at times, which I think is great; gets us going, players like it, puts a bounce in their step. Mostly, I’m just trying to incorporate my own ideas and beliefs into basketball and bonding wise; it’s easy to do when you have guys so willing to embrace and who were blossoming before I got here. And are that good.” Kerr’s not one to take credit for the terrific Warriors start, but he does appear to be the right guy at the right time. Which is as good a definition of success as there is. This has been a good and developing Warriors team that was a second round playoff participant in the tough Western Conference in 2013 and won 51 games last season. Curry’s become a star and Thompson was perhaps the best player for USA Basketball this summer. They’ve got size, depth, athleticism and great shooters. They bring former All-Star Andre Iguodala off the bench and probably Lee when he returns. In some respects, Kerr’s ascension in Golden State is reminiscent of Jackson in Chicago, replacing Doug Collins, a less confrontational personality to take that next step to the proverbial Point C. Kerr will be judged on that level, which is difficult. But it also was a big part of the appeal. He was in line to coach the Knicks, though he concedes basically because of his relationship with Jackson. “I was having a hard time grasping the balance of that job and family,” said Kerr, who still has a son in high school in California. “I knew it was a makeover and was going to take a few years. When this came up, it was an ideal fit for me. But I would have gone to New York if it didn’t.” It’s a bonus for the Warriors as well since Kerr has the makeup of greatness as an NBA coach. I’ve been around most of those top guys and the one trait that stands out—even if it’s not always obvious to the public—is a comfortable way of bonding with their players and showing concern for them as people while also commanding respect for their knowledge and honesty. It really is something either you have or don’t, and Kerr seems to possess the most vital elements. You may remember Kerr at the Bulls 1997 Bulls victory celebration when amidst a surprisingly elegiac setting with rumors of it being the last run, Kerr broke up the crowd and team with a scenario of how Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen asked Kerr to bail them out. There’s a famous picture Kerr loves of he and Jordan matched up in 2002 when Jordan was with the Wizards and Kerr shouting, “Mouse in the house,” telling teammates to get him the ball. It’s an ability to laugh at yourself when you also have achieved. It’s infectious if not easy to acquire. “He has a really good demeanor with the team, really good communication,” says Ron Adams, the former Bulls assistant who runs the defense for Kerr. “He’s a very measured person. He’s fun. I think he brings out the best in a lot of our players, the way he relates to them and manages them. He’s created a very good atmosphere, one serious yet fun. “He’s very innovative in how he makes an atmosphere,” Adams added. “The guys enjoy it, but we enjoy winning as well. He’s flexible and open and he listens. Those are all strong suits. He really loves the game, works at it; he allows us to work around him. A lot of good qualities, but they emanate from the human being, the person.” There’s much misunderstood about NBA players because of the incredible salaries and celebrity. Professional athletes in this era are not as approachable and often have their own paid friends. But what’s never changed about NBA players is they want a few things from anyone who is their coach: Help them improve; try to fool them and they’ll tune you out in a moment. The Warriors play almost two units with large substitutions; no one on the team averages more than 33 minutes per game and sacrifice has been a hallmark from Iguodala heading up the second unit to accommodate Harrison Barnes to Kerr’s own decisions. Though he declines to discuss it, Kerr asked the Warriors for less money than they offered because as a rookie coach he didn’t feel he should be paid at the level of accomplished veterans like Popovich. The Warriors acceded to his wishes. The players have as well, like Iguodala in a unique move for a rookie coach. “He was willing to accept that, which made all the difference in the world,” Kerr said of Iguodala. “He understood we needed Harrison to flourish; he (Barnes) had a tough year last year. It was a lot to ask to lead the second unit. I felt like Harrison needed to start with our starting group in order to get better shots and help his confidence. And I thought our second group would be better anchored by Andre because he’s really a do-it-all player, a point forward who gets us organized.It’s a good fit, but not something Andre is thrilled about. The fact he has accepted it and sacrificed has kind of set the tone for our team. They look at him and see an All-Star and Olympian and guy who’s been around the league and willing to step back; that’s pretty powerful.” It’s also the sort of move that could have roiled a team; but Kerr’s own record of accomplishment and sacrifice, playing a role for five title teams, along with his open personality has been a secure fit for a team that seemed disturbed by the firing of coach Mark Jackson last spring. Instead, Kerr has made a point to note he is building on some great steps the Warriors have made. Unlike some of the coaches who came in after Phil Jackson and bragged about ditching that triangle offense. Right, the one that helped win 11 titles? “The key thing I wanted to do was keep going what they’ve done and how good they’ve been,” said Kerr, who reached out individually to every player last summer. “I didn’t want to be the know-it-all-guy who came in and said, ‘We’ve got to change this, we’ve got to change that.’ This thing was already building and the foundation was already set. My whole approach coming in was ,’Let’s take what you have already done and let’s try to keep it moving forward; let’s try to get better.’ You can’t come in and be a know it all. You’ve go to come in and respect what guys have done individually and as a team and find out how can we get better. We have great guys, all very receptive. I found out they were incredibly coachable and willing listeners and good guys. You could feel right away this was a team that would have good chemistry.” Kerr also is a good one to understand, which is a trait you’ll find in some of the best coaches. Kerr never dreamed the great NBA life, but has been there. He can appreciate the ones who got there and also want to be there. “I actually thought about (coaching) when I was in high school,” said Kerr. “I didn’t think I’d play in the NBA. When I was at Arizona, I thought, ‘All right, when I’m done playing here I’ll come back and be a grad assistant under Lute Olson.” It’s a similarity Kerr has with coaches like Tom Thibodeau and Scott Skiles. They studied the game when they were kids with this in mind because a career seemed unrealistic. It’s also generally why they make better coaches than the kids who were star players. “Obviously, when things worked out the way they did and I ended up playing a long time things changed,” said Kerr. “When I retired from playing I preferred to raise my kids and the TV thing came up. But it’s always been there in the back of my mind. The time was right.” It’s working out well for the Warriors. But hardly just in demeanor. Kerr has instituted an aggressive, active defense that mirrors the offensive excellence in its creativity and relentlessness. Kerr obviously has studied for this in his time as a broadcaster and general manager with the Suns. He’s studied the defensive evolution of the league with the frequency of zone play and provided a freedom to his players with fewer play calls. Of course, he also has some pretty impressive talent. “Defensively, we’re No. 1 in the league in efficiency,” noted Kerr. “A lot of that is we have so many guys 6-7 and long; Klay and Andre and Harrison and Draymond Green), Shaun Livingston. We switch a lot. So we can blow up a lot of the opposing teams’ actions they are trying to run and get them into a late shot clock situation. When we do that, that’s when we can get out and run. Against the Pelicans (Thursday) we had 43 fast break points, which is crazy. A lot of that is if we can take away the first couple of options, then a team has to take a bad shot and they are vulnerable in transition.

“Watching the league the last couple of years as a broadcaster, it was Erik Spoelstra’s term, positionless basketball,” noted Kerr. “That’s the way the league has changed. You can overload the strong side and do a lot of switching you couldn’t do under the old rules. Harrison Barnes is a perfect example. (Against New Orleans), he guarded Tyreke Evans, Anthony Davis, Ryan Anderson, he switched onto (Omer) Asik. When you have that kind of versatility at multiple positions, it takes away a lot of your decision making as a coach. I don’t have to say, ‘Are we going to go big or are we going to go small?’ We’ve also got a lot of well adjusted, normal human beings. It’s really been fun.”

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Steve Kerr leads with unique style

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