Head coach Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors before an NBA play-in tournament game at Mortgage Matchup Center on April 17, 2026 in Phoenix.
Christian Petersen/Getty Images
As Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors ponder whether the head coach will return after 12 years, the week of waiting is making it borderline impossible to tell what’s real and what’s fake.
The stakes for this week have been set for a while now, with Kerr not pursuing any contract extension before the 2025-26 season ended. When the Warriors were about to lose to the Phoenix Suns in the play-in round last week, the coach pulled in longtime stars Steph Curry and Draymond Green for a group hug, with his words to the duo picked up by a microphone and blasted out to everyone on social media.
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“I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but I love you guys to death. Thank you,” Kerr told Curry and Green.
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen next, but I love you guys to death.” 💛
Steve Kerr’s message to Steph and Draymond at the end of the Suns game 🥹 pic.twitter.com/78UfbFHXCm
— NBA on Prime (@NBAonPrime) April 18, 2026
Kerr’s acknowledgement that he isn’t sure about his return left fans and the media scrambling. ESPN reporter Anthony Slater said Kerr told him before the play-in round that he was “genuinely 50-50,” something the outlet put in a lengthy offseason preview package published on Monday. But even while saying he takes Kerr at his word, Slater contradicted that specific line.
“50-50 is never truly 50-50, there’s always a lean one way or the other. But that encapsulates his mindset,” Slater said on the “Warriors Stock Report” podcast that he co-hosts with fellow ESPN reporter Tim Bontemps. As Slater explained it, Kerr intentionally left all of the major conversations he knew he had to have about his future — with owner Joe Lacob, GM Mike Dunleavy, Curry and others — until after the season.
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Still, many Warriors reporters have taken how Kerr spoke after Friday’s loss as a sign that Kerr might be done himself. Bontemps said as much on his podcast. The Athletic’s Nick Friedell said it “sounds like Steve’s going to be somewhere else that’s not with the Warriors next year” in an interview on 95.7 The Game on Wednesday. The same was true for Tom Tolbert, Kerr’s former college teammate and longtime friend who spent decades working for KNBR-AM/FM and now runs an independent podcast. On an episode released Tuesday, Tolbert said he doesn’t know what Kerr was going to do and said he won’t bother his friend, but acknowledged both the wild celebration of the win over the Clippers and the finality of the moment with Green and Curry left him leaning one way.
“It looked like the guy who, if not ready to go, certainly contemplating what life would be like [without coaching],” Tolbert said.
NBC Sports Bay Area columnist Monte Poole went further than anyone, publishing a story on Tuesday citing multiple anonymous sources who said Kerr will likely not return to the sidelines for Golden State. Poole then joined 95.7 The Game for an interview later that afternoon and added to his report.
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“There are a lot of things to rectify, and for Steve to decide to come back, because all I’m hearing is that he’s leaning towards leaving,” Poole said. “This goes back to even last summer, I started hearing that for people inside the organization and outside the organization.”
San Francisco Standard columnist Tim Kawakami also said the team and Kerr might not have “enough common ground” to bring the coach back.
If that’s the case, then it would make sense for Golden State to start checking out possible coaching candidates. Kawakami had several names in his column, including Florida men’s basketball head coach Todd Golden, who used to coach at the University of San Francisco and won a national title in the 2024-25 season. Yahoo! Sports reported on Tuesday that the Lacob family was close to Golden and “long admired his coaching drive,” sending speculation into overdrive.
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But that speculation has been contradicted by Slater, who told his podcast listeners not to believe any reports about Warriors and possible coaching targets just yet.
“Management is not there. They’re not discussing candidates internally,” Slater said. “I’m trying to tell this to the public. They are still on, ‘Steve Kerr is still the coach’ in their mind and they’re figuring out his future before they turn to other candidates. There’s not a stealth coaching search going on right now. Steve Kerr has not decided one way or the other. Obviously, if it goes that way, there are candidates that I do believe they will go try to track down, but they are not there right now.”
But no one seems to know for certain. And on Wednesday, though, Poole said in a Bluesky post that said, “As of noon Wednesday, there remains a modicum of optimism that Steve Kerr will re-sign as coach of the Golden State Warriors, according to four team/league sources. All concede there are sizable hurdles to clear before Kerr considers returning, but he has not yet ruled it out.”
As of noon Wednesday, there remains a modicum of optimism that Steve Kerr will re-sign as coach of the Golden State Warriors, according to four team/league sources.
All concede there are sizable hurdles to clear before Kerr considers returning, but he has not yet ruled it out.
— Monte Poole (@montepoole.bsky.social) April 22, 2026 at 1:02 PM
As for the timing of a decision? Kerr himself said last Friday that he would need “a week or two” before sitting down. Poole reported a decision was expected in “days, not weeks” on Tuesday. And Kawakami took to social media to extend the timeline for a little while longer.
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“Sounds like everybody involved expects the Steve Kerr/Warriors situation to remain unresolved for at least for a couple more days. And this might go into next week. Maybe longer,” Kawakami wrote. “Only takes 1 conversation to speed up everything, of course. But so far … nothing imminent.”
Sounds like everybody involved expects the Steve Kerr/Warriors situation to remain unresolved for at least for a couple more days. And this might go into next week. Maybe longer.
Only takes 1 conversation to speed up everything, of course. But so far … nothing imminent.
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) April 22, 2026
So, to recap: The Warriors appear to have coaching candidates they will pursue. But they aren’t pursuing them yet because they are waiting for Kerr’s decision. No one seems to know for certain what Kerr is going to decide, because there are so many things for the team and coach to work out. And even if people assume he’s likely to leave, not even those closest to Kerr in the NBA seem to have any clarity at this point. And the timing of any decision could come in any day here, or next week, or possible even the week after.
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But other than that, everything seems quite clear, right?