Tragedy Made Steve Kerr See the World Beyond the Court
I hate Golden State.  They&#x27;re an eminently villainous team: overconfident and insufferable.  (This can also be said of many of their fans -- most of whom I suspect had not called themselves a Golden State fan until 2013 -- and their owner, who described their organization as &#x27;light-years ahead&#x27; of the competition because they had the good fortune to sign Curry to the best contract in the NBA due to his reputation as injury-prone.)<p>I can&#x27;t hate Steve Kerr.  He&#x27;s self-deprecating, he&#x27;s insightful, and he&#x27;s fun.  He&#x27;s spoken passionately about basketball, obviously, as a coach and player and commentator, but his use of his platform is truly admirable.  The sports world needs more people like him.<p>Largely speaking, it&#x27;s becoming easier and easier for me to watch the NBA instead of the NFL, if for no other reason than I <i>don&#x27;t feel guilty about it</i>.  As more evidence piles up that American football devastates the human body and mind, it disgusts me a little to watch owners, GMs, and coaches avoid talking about &quot;the world beyond the gridirons&quot; as much as possible.<p>Contrast this with figures in the NBA like Kerr, Gregg Popovich, and even the commissioner Adam Silver (who handled things like Donald Sterling and the All Star Game in Charlotte very well), and it just feels better to be a fan -- and I hope the coming generation of aspiring athletes feel the same way.  (This is not to diminish the great job that players like Lebron, Carmelo, and Cousins have done off the court to improve their communities and speak out about issues, but I think the calculus is a little different as a player.)<p>[EDIT -- I forgot to include perhaps my favorite Steve Kerr moment, the speech he gave after his game-winning shot in Game 6 of the &#x27;97 finals: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=QOCcd-iAljI" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=QOCcd-iAljI</a>]