OAKLAND, Calif. — There have been nights this season when Steve Kerr, the coach who turned the Warriors into the league’s most delightful team and then endured the worst collapse in Finals history, has been harsh. Unnecessarily harsh.
In Kevin Durant’s first game against the Thunder, he had to be restrained by assistant Mike Brown from pursuing an official, lest he earn an ejection. A few weeks later, he took to the radio to lambaste referees for missing traveling calls, drawing a fine from the league office. And, after a comfortable late-November win over the Lakers, Kerr claimed he had just witnessed “one of the worst basketball games I’ve ever seen in my life,” later reconsidering that hyperbole once he had a chance to sleep on it.