Steve Kerr is sticking around. The Golden State Warriors and their head coach have agreed to a two year extension, and Kerr remains the highest paid coach in the NBA. The exact dollar figure was not released but reports indicate the deal is around $35 million per season, which keeps him a step ahead of every other bench in the league.
The move was not really in doubt. Kerr has been the face of one of the most successful coaching tenures in modern NBA history. Four championships. Three with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. One with that core plus Andrew Wiggins. Plus four trips to the Finals when his teams did not finish the job. The track record speaks for itself.
The extension matters because the next two seasons are going to look very different from the last decade. The roster has turned over significantly. Klay is gone. Andrew Wiggins is gone. The Warriors have rebuilt around Curry and Jimmy Butler with a heavier emphasis on younger players. Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, and now first round pick Yaxel Lendeborg form the next generation that Kerr will be charged with developing.
Curry’s window is the determining factor in all of this. He is still playing at an MVP level but the body has limits. Two more years of championship contention is the optimistic timeline. Kerr now has the assignment of building a system that can squeeze the last great years out of Curry while transitioning toward whatever comes after.
This is no easy task. The Warriors play in a tough Western Conference. The Spurs are arriving as the new powerhouse with Victor Wembanyama. The Lakers are reloaded around Luka Doncic. The Thunder are still loaded. The Nuggets are still dangerous. Getting back to the Finals is going to require some combination of luck, health, and ruthless roster construction.
Kerr’s contract being the highest in the league is interesting because it sets the market for elite coaches. Erik Spoelstra, Tyronn Lue, and Mike Budenholzer have all been in or near the top of the pay scale. Kerr maintaining his position signals that the Warriors view him as essential to whatever comes next. They could have negotiated harder. They chose to keep him locked in.
The relationship with management is part of why this works. Kerr has been with the franchise since 2014. He has had a productive partnership with Joe Lacob and the front office. They have weathered tough stretches together. They have built winning rosters together. The institutional knowledge of how Kerr likes to play and how the front office likes to build matters.
The pressure now turns up. Two years to do something. Kerr does not love rebuilds and does not have the patience to coach a fully bottomed out roster. He needs the Warriors to be at least playoff competitive every year of this contract, and his comments about wanting another title before the end of the Curry era are very public.
Beyond the Warriors, Kerr remains a face of the entire league. He coached the United States to gold at the Paris Olympics. He is one of the more thoughtful voices on issues outside the lines. He has the respect of players across the league. Keeping him in the league benefits everyone, which is part of why nobody really objected to the salary.
For now, the Warriors have their leader locked in. The next move is to see whether the roster can hold up to expectations. The pieces are interesting. The coaching is elite. The clock is ticking on Steph. Kerr is back to manage what might be the last great chapter of one of the best teams of the 21st century.
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.
