GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 23, 2020

Steve Kerr

Minicamp Media Availability

Q. I want to ask about basketball, but then about an hour ago we got something much more important, and I'm curious to know, A, what you heard, what you think and how you feel.

STEVE KERR: Yeah, I mean, I just heard right at the end of practice the news. It's just so demoralizing. It's so discouraging. I just keep thinking about the generation of American kids of any color; is this the way we want to raise them? Is this the country we want to live in? There's just so much violence. There's so much shooting.

It comes in so many forms, whether it's school shootings or vigilanteism or police brutality, neighbor to neighbor. There's just so much violence, and it's demoralizing when we can't be accountable or hold anyone to account for it.

The really demoralizing thing is we have a really powerful movement that's happening. We have so many people who care about this country and so many people who want change and believe in equal justice for Black and brown communities, and yet we don't have it. It's such a tough hill to climb, but this long history of racism that we have in our country continues, and it continues in the form of this kind of violence, state-sanctioned violence over and over again that we're seeing, and it's devastating.

Q. How was it to get your group back together after all these months and just get to do some basketball with your people after a trying time?

STEVE KERR: Yeah, you know, this has been a really tough six, seven months for everybody on earth really with this pandemic and the way that it has affected everybody's lives from a health standpoint, from an economic standpoint, from just an emotional well-being standpoint.

I think for us, for our team, it was really a relief to be out on the floor playing basketball again together, competing, laughing, enjoying ourselves. The guys looked great. There was a lot of good energy. They had a lot of fun out there today. First time really that any of them have had a chance to play real basketball other than just kind of one-on-one stuff in a long time. Great to see them out there.

Q. What did you guys do? Was Klay there? Was everybody there who you expected to be?

STEVE KERR: Klay and Eric Paschall are still going through the league testing protocols, so those two were not here today. We expect them here later in the week. Draymond and Steph were not here. We did not expect them to come. Everybody else was here, so I think that meant 14 players. We had a really good day of practice.

I'm approaching this very differently from a normal training camp where we're trying to prepare for a game in six days. We don't have a game to prepare for. So this is really two weeks of basketball. We're approaching it very differently. Today we played a lot of 3-on-3, we went over 3-on-3 concepts, we did a lot of running and transition stuff, a ton of shooting.

I think the guys enjoyed practice, but it felt like a good way to kind of ease into a little tougher practice tomorrow and the next day, to the point where we can ultimately scrimmage 5-on-5 full court, and we'll get there before too long.

Q. What are you guys missing not having Steph and Draymond there do you think?

STEVE KERR: Well, I think, first of all, I want to make clear that this is a voluntary camp, and so Bob and I have both been in touch with Steph and Draymond, and we are well aware of their circumstances. They both have important family issues to attend to, and so they have excused absences.

Would I like them to be here? Of course. We know, we're watching all these teams in the bubble. The ones that didn't make the Playoffs, even they got six weeks together to practice and play games and try different combinations and lineups. And we haven't had that opportunity.

We're just going to use the opportunity that we have here over two weeks just like the other seven teams that didn't go to the bubble, and we'll try to make the most of this time and get plenty of work in. A lot of guys are going to get a lot better and really thrive in this environment.

I'm not worried about Steph and Draymond; I know how hard they work and I know they'll be prepared for next season.

Q. If you don't mind me going back to the Breonna Taylor ruling. From your vantage points, what reforms do you think need to put in place so there's finally accountability for when police shoot or kill unarmed black people?

STEVE KERR: Yeah, it's a difficult question, or it's an easy question, depending on your perspective. From a legal perspective, I don't really know what reforms have to be made. From a human perspective, let's actually take care of each other and look after one another, and we've got to find a way to take a step forward in this country and get away from this horrible cycle of violence that continues and that has been happening for so long.

It's a matter of humanity. These are human beings with families, and it's devastating to think of the emotional toll that these people are feeling, the families involved, but also just a generation of young people who are being raised in this country with so much violence and so little accountability for that violence. It's infuriating.

I know that I'm one of many people who really is invested in trying to help create some change, and there's so many people out there who care so much about this country and who are trying to help climb a hill that has proven to be very difficult to climb. But we've got to keep going.

Q. Could you tell us a little bit about the setup at the hotel, what the last few days have been like, and kind of what you guys are undertaking right now, beyond just the court?

STEVE KERR: Yeah, we were quarantined at the hotel for the last 48 hours, so we checked in, I guess, Monday morning. The hardest thing was just not being able to leave the room for 48 hours. We survived. We're lucky; we get well taken care of, and here we are back in the facility and practicing, and we're having our meals here.

We've got each other, we've got a lot of entertainment, we've got a really good setup for the players and coaches to have a lot of fun and a lot of bonding and camaraderie. We've got an upstairs room in Chase that we've kind of set up as a player lounge that's got a deck so we can get outside and get some fresh air and sunshine, and it's sort of a big arcade. We've got a bunch of games and ping-pong tables and cornhole and pool tables. The players and coaches are going to spend a lot of time here at Chase. It's strange finishing practice and then not really knowing what to do. Normally we would kind of tie up the loose ends and everybody would head home. We've got to find the rhythm of the camp and the team here the next couple of days.

Q. Are you guys doing two-a-days where you're practicing morning and this is like the middle time, people chill at Chase Center and then you're going to practice later? What's the schedule?

STEVE KERR: Well, we're going to be really flexible with practice trying to find the right pattern and the best pattern for us, so we're not starting out with two-a-days. We could morph into something where maybe we have a shooting session in the morning and a scrimmage in the evening. We're going to play it by ear, literally day-to-day. As I said, very different from training camp where everything is scripted by the minute. This is much more flexible and off-the-cuff.

Q. What kind of importance are you putting on team bonding and reconnecting with the chemistry like those extracurricular things to get to know each other again after such a long layoff?

STEVE KERR: Yeah, that's a big part of it. It's just being together. It's been a long time since we've had the group together, and part of it is these guys just love to play basketball and compete, so we want to give them that opportunity. You know, the thing that I miss from playing that every former player will tell you he misses or she misses from playing is just the locker room banter and talking trash to your teammates and competing, making fun of each other. So it was good to get back in the gym and feel that energy and that camaraderie.

Q. Were there any -- you mentioned the 3-on-3 and the shooting drills. Were there any highlights from day one?

STEVE KERR: I think the thing that really stood out was just a lot of high energy. People were really ready to run and get out and play. You can only do so much one-on-one workouts with one player, one coach. That gets old. We got our young guys who have been in here for months now, Jordan and Eric and Juan and Ky and some of the other guys, they've been coming in here every day. So for them especially to be able to come in and actually play basketball and compete is way more fun.

Q. I know Klay hasn't gotten out of quarantine yet, but I know he was in the facility working out for a few days. Where is he at? Like do you expect when he gets out and gets to practice it's like full 100 percent go, no restrictions? Where is he at?

STEVE KERR: Yeah, he's doing well. He worked out here at the facility for several days in a row, maybe four or five days in a row with Chris DeMarco, and Chris gave me really positive updates. I was here for a couple of those days and got a chance to see him. Klay looks great, and he's anxious to play, so we're excited about that.

Q. What's the latest on Kevon?

STEVE KERR: So Kevon went full bore today, and it's great to see. He's made great strides in the off-season. It was really exciting to see him ready to roll right from the beginning, and Rick was very pleased with his work over the past few months, and he seemed to come through practice really well.

Q. Any restrictions?

STEVE KERR: No, no restrictions.