Warriors’ Kerr felt like ‘fish out of water’ giving speech at DNC originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Steve Kerr is no stranger to the big moment, but for one night on Aug. 19, the nine-time NBA champion experienced nerves unlike any he has experienced as a player and coach.
Kerr took the stage on the first night of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago, an arena he is familiar with from his time playing with the Bulls, and addressed a crowd of approximately 26,000-plus attendees and millions watching from home, endorsing current Vice President Kamala Harris for president in the 2024 election while channeling Steph Curry’s viral “night night” celebration in speaking out against former President Donald Trump.
The Warriors coach joined “The Dan Le Batard” show on Tuesday, where he was asked about the opportunity to speak at the convention and his nerves leading up to it.
“Yeah, that was an interesting experience,” Kerr said. “They asked me to do it a couple days before I went on and I really gave it a lot of thought because I knew I was going to take a lot of heat for it. But I wanted to make sure I got the right message across, what was most important to me. After thinking about it I realized ‘Hey, they asked me for a reason. They think it matters that I speak my mind.” And so I decided to do it and it was very nerve-wracking and I’m glad I did it. Met a lot of great people, there’s a lot of great energy in the building. It was a lot of fun to be a part of.”
Kerr received some criticism for his appearance but the feedback overall for his speech was positive as he aimed to convey a message of unity in a divided political climate.
“I got some emails. But generally speaking, the vast majority of people who contacted me were very supportive,” Kerr shared. “I wanted to make sure my message was one of unity, especially coming off the Olympic gold medal performance by the team in Paris.
“I just think the political rhetoric, really the national rhetoric on a lot of platforms is just so ugly these days and divisive and I just wanted to make sure my message was a reminder to people that…
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