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\u201cI think we\u2019re as weak as we\u2019ve ever been as a country, at least in a long time, because our leadership is so misguided,\u201d he said, without mentioning President Donald Trump by name. \u201cThere\u2019s a lack of humility, a lack of dignity, a lack of understanding of the world, a lack of embracing other perspectives. The belligerence.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Malcolm Kerr was a UCLA professor and Middle East scholar who became president of American University of Beirut. He was assassinated outside his office in January 1984 at age 52. Members of what became Hezbollah (a militant group allied with Iran) claimed responsibility for the killing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Given Steve Kerr\u2019s interest in politics, and his deeply personal connection to the ongoing Middle East conflict, Bethea then asked him about the war in Lebanon and Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad was killed by Iranian proxies 42 years ago,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cI have no regard for the Iranian regime whatsoever. But the answer does not lie in starting a war and killing innocent people.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine being a parent of one of the 175 girls who died when their school was bombed. Their loss, their suffering. \u2026 How are they going to feel about America? Violence begets violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerr spoke to the New Yorker on April 20, three days after his team\u2019s season-ending, play-in tournament loss to Phoenix. In his postgame news conference that night, Kerr expressed uncertainty about his coaching future\u00a0\u2014 his contract runs out this summer\u00a0\u2014 noted all coaching jobs have an \u201cexpiration date\u201d and sounded ready to walk away.<\/p>\n
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Then, last week, two reports suggested Kerr\u2019s penchant for political commentary has ruffled feathers within the Warriors. ESPN\u2019s Marc Spears, appearing on 95.7 The Game, referenced Kerr speaking out on issues involving social justice, racism and gun violence before adding, \u201cI\u2019ve heard a little bit that maybe he\u2019s being stifled a little bit in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later in the week, the Athletic\u2019s Nick Friedell cited league and team sources as saying, \u201cKerr\u2019s desire to speak candidly on social and political issues has at times caused internal frustration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerr declined the Chronicle\u2019s interview request Monday. A Warriors spokesperson said owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy wouldn\u2019t be available until after Kerr\u2019s situation is resolved.<\/p>\n
Later in the New Yorker interview, while reflecting on his blunt criticism of Trump after he was first elected president in 2016 (including calling him a \u201cbuffoon\u201d), Kerr acknowledged he needed to soften his tone given his role as the public voice of the Warriors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so disgusted I didn\u2019t hold back,\u201d he said of the \u201916 rant. \u201cI\u2019ve learned I need to be better in terms of representing our organization in a way that I could still let my feelings be known but not get too personal. I\u2019m representing a large group of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Kerr has long railed against gun violence, including a May 2022 news conference hours after the Uvalde, Texas, elementary-school shooting killed 19 students and two teachers. He slammed U.S. senators for not voting on legislation calling for universal background checks.<\/p>\n
More recently, in January, Kerr criticized Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials for their role in the killing of Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good. Kerr condemned Good\u2019s shooting by an ICE agent, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s shameful we can have law enforcement officers who commit murder and seemingly get away with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
About two weeks later, the Warriors were in Minneapolis when Alex Pretti, one of thousands of protesters of the government\u2019s immigration policy, was killed by Department of Homeland Security officials. Kerr expressed his sympathy, then eventually waded into the issue of immigration reform.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really hopeful the protests here and nationwide will lead to a much better solution for immigration,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like they\u2019re rooting out violent criminals. They\u2019re taking 5-year-old kindergarteners, U.S. citizens, and detaining people. Immigration is a problem that needs to be addressed by Congress, legislatively, not by military force in the streets pulling people from their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later that week, Kerr acknowledged he \u201cmisspoke,\u201d knew ICE was arresting criminals and apologized for the comment. He repeated his criticism of the government for detaining people who \u201cshould not be detained\u201d and the manner in which it was apprehending people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Among other notable quotes in Kerr\u2019s interview with the New Yorker:<\/p>\n
\u2022 On the divisiveness in the U.S., which he said was happening before Trump: \u201cHe definitely has taken advantage of that to gain and consolidate power, and he\u2019s using it to drive a wedge between all of us. He\u2019s not the only one who\u2019s done that, but he\u2019s the president. He\u2019s got the most power. But calling the president a buffoon, I kind of regret that even though I felt it in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 On whether he regrets not speaking out when the NBA reprimanded then-Rockets general manager Daryl Morey for a tweet supporting anti-government protesters in Hong Kong: \u201cYeah. I was wrong. We had a lot of players on our team (who) were doing business in China. A lot of our players would go there in the offseason and the NBA had this huge relationship with China. \u2026 I didn\u2019t handle it well. I was trying to walk the company line and not make the NBA mad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 On the oft-discussed possibility he could pursue public office after his coaching career: \u201cI don\u2019t have any desire to go into politics. I love basketball. This is my world. All of my friends and my people are in this world. And whether I keep coaching the Warriors or not, I imagine I\u2019ll be involved in basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
That Kerr agreed to the New Yorker interview \u2014 his only public comments since the April 17 news conference in Phoenix \u2014 shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise. Ann Kerr always has had an affinity for the magazine.<\/p>\n
In October 2024, during a Chronicle interview for a profile of his mom, Steve Kerr feigned\u00a0anger about Ann (instead of him or one of his brothers)\u00a0joining his dad for\u00a0UCLA-USC football games when Steve was a kid. He recalled how she loved the atmosphere of the big college football rivalry\u00a0\u2014 and how she always brought a copy of the New Yorker with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has not been shy about expressing his views on social issues.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7000,101,103,102,104,106,105,17007],"class_list":["post-289407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-steve-kerr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}