SAN ANTONIO — Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr started his pregame news conference Friday night by memorializing longtime Oakland-area football coach John Beam, who died earlier in the day after being shot on Laney College’s campus Thursday. Kerr wore a T-shirt with John Beam’s name and a heart on it before Friday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs.

“Really difficult time for people in Oakland right now,” Kerr said. “Coach Beam was a legend. Forty-year head coach for different football teams in the Bay Area and, of course, current athletic director at Laney. Today is a really, really sad day. Sad day for the Bay Area, sad day for coach Beam’s family and everybody in Oakland. He was a revered figure in Oakland. Did so much for so many people. On behalf of the Warriors, I just want to extend our condolences and remind everybody that we have to be the change. As a community, as citizens, we have to be the ones who insist that we address the gun violence issue in this country.”

Steve Kerr starts off his press conference by speaking about John Beam and offering condolences to his family. He calls the tragic shooting “a sad day for the Bay Area.” pic.twitter.com/2MrXmVmM3c

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Kerr also mentioned Wednesday’s shooting at Skyline High School in Oakland during his remarks. He said he did not know Beam but heard from friends in the Bay Area who did.

“Did not know him personally,” Kerr said. “But I have a lot of friends in Oakland who knew him well and texted me today and told me what an important figure he’s been in Oakland and at Laney in particular.”

Kerr, whose father was shot dead in a terrorist attack in Beirut in 1984, has long been outspoken about his belief that stronger gun laws are needed. In 2018, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California invited Kerr to a town hall on gun violence at Newark Memorial High, where he took questions from students themselves.

After a mass shooting that occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022, Kerr used a pregame news conference heading into Game 4 of the Western Conference finals against the Dallas Mavericks to deliver yet another plea for gun control.

“We’ve had Asian churchgoers killed in Southern California, and now we have children murdered at school. When are we going to do something?” Kerr said at the pregame news conference.

The Oakland Police Department arrested Cedric Irving Jr., a 27-year-old suspect in Beam’s killing, early Friday morning. Investigators said Irving knew Beam and that it was a targeted attack, but have not released any further information.