Steve Kerr led the U.S. men’s basketball team to a gold medal at the Paris Olympics 10 days ago. He’s led the Golden State Warriors to four NBA championships. He was part of five NBA championship teams as a player.
So given the opportunity to speak Monday night at the Democratic National Convention in support of Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz, Kerr focused on what he knows best — leadership.
“I believe leaders must display dignity. I believe that leaders must tell the truth,” Kerr said. “I believe that leaders must care for and love the people that they are leading.
“If you look for those qualities in your friends or a boss or an employee or your child’s teacher or your mayor, then shouldn’t you want those same qualities in your president? And when you think about it that way, this is no contest. With Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, I see all those qualities.”
“Leadership, real leadership, is not the kind that seeks to divide us, but the kind that recognizes and celebrates our common purpose.”
Kerr concluded his speech by borrowing the signature gesture of his best player on the Warriors, tilting his head onto his pressed-together hands.
“After the [election] results are tallied,” Kerr said, “we can — in the words of the great Steph Curry — we can tell Donald Trump, ‘Night, night.’”
Endorsing the Democratic ticket was not a surprise from Kerr, who for years has been one of the most outspoken liberal voices in sports. And neither was the jab at Trump, with whom he has sparred before.
Trump blasted Kerr in 2019 for initially declining to comment on the NBA’s handling of Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey’s tweet supporting anti-government protesters in Hong Kong, tweeting that Kerr looked like “a scared little boy.”
Kerr responded a day later, saying, “This was my experience with, wow, has the office [of president] sunken low. My hope is that we can find a mature unifier from either party to sit in that chair and try to restore some dignity to the Oval Office again, and I think it will happen.”
Trump rescinded the Warriors’ invitation to visit the White House to celebrate their 2017 championship after Curry criticized him over his attacks on Black athletes protesting during the national anthem. Instead of visiting the White House, the Warriors toured the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
In his speech Monday night, Kerr acknowledged that becoming politically active can be dicey for a sports figure.
“I can see the ‘Shut up and whistle’ tweets being fired off as we speak,” he said. “But I also knew after being asked as an American citizen, it was too important not to speak up in an election of this magnitude.”