Golden State Warriors: Steve Kerr’s gut-punch to All-Star game a legal hit

As Golden State Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr rejoices at his All-Star snub,  questions arise regarding the nature of the game, and incentive to participate.

Prizes, honors and nominations. They’re all good stuff, right? Apparently Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr doesn’t think so.

By league rule, Sunday’s coaching lineup was determined by the standings as of Feb. 3. Although the Warriors currently lead the Western Conference by two games, the Denver Nuggets briefly pulled ahead of the Dubs at the cutoff.

This proved just enough to boot Kerr from his coaching spot on rival LeBron James’ roster creation, aka Team LeBron.

Check out his devastation as he discussed his break from the grind.

You play the game to win, and strive hard for every honor. Except, of course, when these “rewards” interfere with your actual goal.

To anyone chiding Kerr’s attitude, one could counter with this: Perhaps helping rival LeBron win a meaningless game with his pretend-drafted roster (alluding to hopes for future teammates, some argue?) isn’t exactly a great use of efforts for the coach shouldering the burden of the championship-contending Warriors.

Maybe a vacation with the family is better. Or even just a week for Kerr to chill and rest his feet. Especially considering he may have a work-heavy stretch over the next three and a half months.

Because amidst a constant grind of back-to-backs, long road trips and nationally televised delight, teams get tired. This includes the coaches.

When fatigue sets in, rest has to come from somewhere. What’s more important? Bringing home the Larry O’Brien trophy, or winning a mock game featuring no defense, overabundant chumminess and meaningless results?

Make no mistake, this year’s All-Star game wasn’t bad for the fans. Some pretty cool dunks happened, notably this sick one by Giannis Antetokounmpo off the bounce from Stephen Curry:

https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1097317489405501440

But it’s not the same as actual competition. No one’s battling, hustling, feuding or otherwise trying to walk away victorious. Obviously the game lacks something, if Kerr can’t even pretend to contain excitement at skipping the event.

The two captains format was sort of fun for a while. But at the end of the day, who really says, “Hey guys, let’s win this for Team LeBron”?

And how much action do the coaches actually see? The fact Michael Malone and Mike Budezholzer even held clipboards was hilarious in itself. Did watching Sunday’s game shed some light on Kerr’s perspective?

You want Kerr to have motivation to coach the contest? Mimic Major League Baseball and attach some incentive to it. Keep the same coaching format, and then let the game determine home-court advantage in the NBA Finals.

It that were the case, Kerr might feel incentive to strive to make the roster as a coach, for destiny-control purposes. Curry would get that look in his eyes as he, for real, tries to win the game. A late Kyrie Irving shot may actually matter. And LeBron would facilitate his squad in playoff fashion, because this actually would affect the playoffs.

There are plenty of counterarguments to such a tweak, but until then, the message Kerr delivered should be heard clearly by the league. By way of openly celebrating the All-Star snub, Kerr has extracted the cat from Adam Silver’s bag.