Steve Kerr tried his best to corral a lot of different wild personalities on the Golden State Warriors this year.
Given that the team flamed out in the second round of the NBA playoffs, it’s safe to say he was unsuccessful.
One person who repeatedly found himself at the center of Warriors drama was guard, Jordan Poole.
This past week Kerr appeared on Draymond Green’s podcast and took what seemed to be a pretty clear low-key shot at Poole when describing why he liked the Miami Heat so much.
Steve Kerr pretty much explains why the Warriors struggled this year 👀 pic.twitter.com/t2BV5f6Zqj
— Charlie (@PlayoffDray) June 5, 2023
“None of those guys on Miami are sitting there saying, ‘Well, I didn’t play,’ or ‘Man, they put in so-and-so.’ They’re just all about winning,” Kerr said.
“And you know this from our groups that we’ve had, when you have that championship mentality, every guy is bought in, every guy is just trying to win, nobody — nobody cares about any of that stuff.”
Kerr didn’t stop there, though.
“You don’t go in the locker room saying, ‘Well, I should have played more.’ You just wanna win. And that’s the beauty of finding that magic when you have a championship team, is that everybody is bought in, and it makes the decision for the coach really simple. You just go with your gut, and go with whoever’s playing well.”
Poole struggled for much of this year’s playoffs, culminating in him getting his playing time reduced. He outwardly expressed his frustration over this repeatedly during the postseason.
Poole’s attitude led to a number of tense moments between him and his teammates late in the year, including a particularly awkward one with Stephen Curry.
Dalvin Cook may be gone, but the Vikings are still looking pretty good from this vantage point.https://t.co/Rdq50mtsWS
— Game 7 (@game7__) June 8, 2023
Now, with Kerr taking such public shots at him, it will be interesting to see what sort of mentality Poole returns with next season.
He could either buckle down and get better – or he could come back much worse.
What version of Poole will Kerr have to deal with come the 2023-24 NBA season? One way or the other, an answer will emerge soon enough.
Related: Ex-UFC Star Pearl Gonzalez’s Newest Wild Photos Cause A Stir
A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
