Star Wars Day: NBA stars and their Star Wars counterparts

NBA stars and their Star Wars counterparts: Steve Kerr = Obi-Wan Kenobi

To find the perfect NBA comp for Obi-Wan Kenobi, I wanted to find someone who served in multiple roles over the course of his career. When we first meet Obi-Wan Kenobi he is a Jedi Padawan just about to take his Jedi Trials and become a Knight. We watch him blossom into one of the most prolific and wise Jedis of his time while helping to bring along the next generation. Then in the original trilogy, he is the sage mentor to Luke Skywalker.

Steve Kerr leaps off the page as the obvious comp. The greater basketball community first gets to know Steve Kerr as the sharpshooting guard alongside Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen on the 1990s Chicago Bulls. Then later in his career, he had a smaller role with the Tim Duncan Spurs, serving as a veteran mentor to their younger guards.

Fast forward a few years, and Steve Kerr is winning championships as the head coach of the Golden State Warriors. His wisdom and technical expertise, packaged with the experience of being on two dynastic teams, makes him a unique voice to speak to a team of basketball players, and especially the collection of players that carried them to five straight NBA Finals and brought home three championships.

Kerr as a coach is Ben Kenobi as a mentor, both helping to shepherd the career of a phenom, be that Stephen Curry or Luke Skywalker. Both were actively speaking to their proteges just before they hit big shots, Curry to take down the Thunder in 2016 and Skywalker to blow up the Death Star. These two founts of wisdom parallel each other as they make an impact across decades.