Stephen Douglas Kerr (born September 27, 1965) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was the head coach of the U.S. national team. Kerr is known as one of the most accurate three-point shooters in NBA history and holds the record for highest career three-point percentage. He is also a nine-time NBA champion, having won five titles as a player and four as a head coach. Kerr was named one of the 15 Greatest Coaches in NBA History.
Kerr played college basketball for the Arizona Wildcats. He was a two-time first-team all-conference player in the Pac-10 (now known as the Pac-12) and earned All-American honors as a senior in 1988. In the 1987–88 season, Kerr set the NCAA single-season three-point field goal percentage record (57.3%). Selected by the Phoenix Suns in the second round of the 1988 NBA draft, Kerr played 15 seasons in the NBA. He won five NBA championships as a player—three with the Chicago Bulls and two with the San Antonio Spurs—and retired as the all-time NBA leader in single-season three-point shooting percentage and career three-point shooting percentage.
Following his retirement as a player, Kerr became a minority owner of the Phoenix Suns as part of a group led by Robert Sarver that purchased the team in 2004. In June 2007, Phoenix named Kerr the team's president of basketball operations and general manager. Kerr announced he was leaving the position in June 2010. After stepping down from his post with the Suns, Kerr worked as a color commentator for NBA on TNT until 2014.
In May 2014, Kerr was named head coach of the Warriors. Under his leadership, the franchise entered the most successful period in its history, reaching the NBA Finals six times and winning four championships (in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022). The 2015–16 Warriors won an unprecedented 73 games, breaking the record for the most wins in an NBA season.
Early life and international play
Kerr was born on September 27, 1965, in Beirut, Lebanon to Malcolm H. Kerr, a Lebanese-born American academic, and Ann Kerr (née Zwicker), an American academic from California. Both of his parents specialized in the Middle East. Kerr has three siblings. His paternal grandfather, Stanley Kerr, volunteered with the Near East Relief after the Armenian genocide and rescued women and orphans in Aleppo and Marash before eventually settling in Beirut. Kerr spent much of his childhood in Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries such as Egypt, where he attended Cairo American College. While in Beirut in the summer of 1983, Kerr met a number of U.S. Marines who were later killed in the Beirut barracks bombings. He graduated from Palisades High School in Los Angeles in 1983.
On January 18, 1984, Malcolm Kerr was killed by members of the Islamic Jihad at age 52 while serving as president of the American University of Beirut. Malcolm was shot twice in the back of his head by gunmen using suppressed handguns in the hallway outside his office. Kerr was an 18-year-old college freshman at the time of his father's death. Regarding his father's death, Kerr has said: "Before my father was killed, my life was impenetrable. Bad things happened to other people."
During the summer of 1986, Kerr was named to the U.S. national team that competed in the FIBA World Championship in Spain. The team won the title for the first time since 1954 and was the last American men's senior squad not to feature NBA players that had won a major international tournament. Kerr suffered a torn ACL during the competition.
Minimally recruited out of high school, Kerr played basketball at the University of Arizona from 1983 to 1988. A guard, Kerr injured his knee playing in the 1986 FIBA World Championship, forcing him to miss the Wildcats' entire 1986–87 season.
During pre-game warmups at arch-rival Arizona State University in 1988, Kerr was taunted by Sun Devils fans with chants that included "PLO" and "Where’s your father?" Though tearful, Kerr led the Wildcats to victory, scoring 20 points in the first half, making all six of his three-point attempts. Arizona State athletic director Charles Harris sent a letter of apology to Kerr a few days later. Along with fellow All-American teammate Sean Elliott, Kerr helped the Wildcats reach the Final Four of the 1988 NCAA tournament. A two-time first-team All-Pac-10 selection, he also set an NCAA single-season record for three-point percentage (57.3%, 114–199) in 1987–88. The NCAA introduced the three-point shot while Kerr was redshirting. In his only collegiate season with the three-point shot, Kerr established standards that formerly stood as Pac-12 records for nearly two decades: single-season three-point shots made (114; stood until Salim Stoudamire posted 120 in 2005), Pac-12 tournament run three-point field goal percentage (.750, min 5 made; Marcus Williams, .833, 2006). He led the Pac-10 in free throw shooting in 1985–86 (89.9%).
Kerr graduated from the University of Arizona in 1988 with a Bachelor of General Studies, with an emphasis on history, sociology, and English. He finished his collegiate basketball career with an average of 11.2 points per game and a 54.8% field goal percentage.
Kerr was selected by the Phoenix Suns in the second round (50th overall) of the 1988 NBA draft. He averaged 2.1 points per game for the Suns in 26 games as a rookie.
Cleveland Cavaliers (1989–1992)
In 1989, Kerr was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers for draft consideration. In over three seasons with the Cavaliers, he set the team's franchise single-season (.507, 1989–90) and career three-point field goal percentage (.472) records.
In December 1992, Kerr was traded to the Orlando Magic for draft considerations. He averaged 2.6 points per game during his tenure with Orlando.
In 1993, Kerr signed with the Chicago Bulls. He played in Chicago for five seasons and typically came off of the bench, playing the role of three-point shooting specialist. The Bulls made the playoffs in the 1993–94 and 1994–95 seasons, but without Michael Jordan's presence for all of 1994 and much of 1995, the team was unable to advance to the Finals. However, with Jordan back full-time for the 1995–96 season, the Bulls set a then-NBA record of 72–10 and defeated the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1996 NBA Finals in six games.
In 1997, the Bulls logged a 69–13 regular-season record and reached the 1997 NBA Finals, where they faced the Utah Jazz. At the end of Game 6, with the score tied at 86, Kerr took a pass from Jordan and made a 17-foot jump shot to win the championship for the Bulls. Kerr also won the Three-Point Contest at the 1997 NBA All-Star Weekend.
In the last minute of Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals against Utah, Kerr missed a three-pointer, grabbed his own rebound, and made a pass to Jordan. Jordan made a crucial three-point play, putting the Bulls in the lead for good and helping the team tie the series at one game apiece. The Bulls went on to win the series in six games.