Steve Kerr almost walked away. According to a recent report from Marcus Thompson at The Athletic, Kerr entered the Warriors’ Play-In game in Los Angeles believing there was a “95 percent” chance he would retire at the end of the season. One night, one game, one win changed his mind.
The Warriors won 126-121 against the Clippers in the Play-In, a stunner of a comeback win that Kerr later called one of the best games he has ever been part of. Inside the locker room afterward, Kerr told Thompson he was not leaving. The decision was made on a single emotional high.
That is the kind of moment that sometimes only happens in basketball. Kerr has won four titles. He has coached Steph Curry through every chapter of his career. He is already in the conversation as a top-10 coach in NBA history. Walking away at the end of the 2025-26 season would have been a reasonable, even understandable, decision.
Then the Play-In happened. Curry put up 36. Andrew Wiggins delivered the kind of effort that reminded everyone of his 2022 Finals run. Draymond Green, who has been the emotional engine of every Warriors run, was at his best. The team played the kind of basketball Kerr has wanted to see all year, and Kerr decided he was not done.
The follow-up was a two-year, $35 million extension that makes Kerr the highest-paid coach in NBA history. That is a real commitment from Joe Lacob and the Warriors front office. It is also a vote of confidence in a coach who, by his own admission, was on the brink of walking away.
Here is why this matters. Kerr is one of the few coaches who can manage the personalities and politics of a Warriors organization that includes Curry, Green, and the various stars who have come and gone over the years. The next coach, whoever it would have been, would have walked into the world’s most complicated locker room. Kerr is the only person who can run it without conflict.
For Steph Curry, the extension is a major relief. Curry has said publicly that he wants to retire as a Warrior. He has said privately, per reports, that he wants Kerr to be his coach for as long as he plays. The two-year extension matches up almost perfectly with the remaining seasons on Curry’s own contract.
The 95 percent number is the most striking detail. It tells you how close Kerr was to making a different decision. He had family considerations. He has other interests, including USA Basketball. He has been doing this since 2014, an eternity in coaching years. The Warriors organization should consider themselves lucky that one game flipped him back.
Kerr’s coaching legacy is already secured, but his next two years will define how the post-Curry era begins. The roster has Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, and Trayce Jackson-Davis as the next generation. Kerr will be the one teaching them what Warriors basketball means. That is hard work. It is also rewarding work.
For the broader NBA, the news is fascinating. The Warriors avoided a coaching search, the Warriors locked up their coach for two more years, and a championship-caliber organization stays continuous. That is bad news for every other team in the West that was hoping for transition turmoil in the Bay.
For Kerr personally, the lesson is that retirement decisions are best made after the season ends, not during. The Play-In rescue showed him he still loves the work. The win, the locker room, the moment, all of it reminded him why he started coaching in the first place. That kind of clarity is rare. Kerr got it on a Tuesday in April. The Warriors got two more years of one of the great coaches in basketball history.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
