Kerr apologizes for viral rant rebuking refs after Warriors’ loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Minutes after the Warriors’ late loss to the Rockets in Houston on Wednesday, coach Steve Kerr blistered game officials with a scathing rant heard around the basketball world.
Three days later, gaining the clarity of hindsight and having a private conversation with the powers that be within the NBA, Kerr is apologetic.
“Let me just say, I will say publicly, I am embarrassed about it,” Kerr said after the team’s 90-minute practice Saturday. “Anytime I criticize an official after the fact, I feel terrible. I’m embarrassed by it. Sometimes, with these games the emotion kicks in and you say things you regret.”
Kerr’s viral postgame rant Wednesday night stemmed from a play in the final seconds. With the Warriors clinging to a 90-89 lead, forward Jonathan Kuminga and Rockets guard Jalen Green dived onto the floor after a loose ball. Green got there a split-second earlier, and Kuminga made an overtly physical attempt to pry the ball away. Crew chief Bill Kennedy whistled a loose-ball foul on Kuminga, awarding Green with two free throws with 3.5 seconds remaining.
Green made both, giving Houston a 91-90 lead that held until the final buzzer.
Kerr blasted Kennedy for making the call that, in the end, decided the game.
“You’re going to call a loose-ball foul on a jump-ball situation? With guys diving on the floor? With the game on the line?” Kerr asked, rhetorically, during his postgame news conference. “This is a billion-dollar industry. You’ve got people’s jobs on the line.
“I give the Rockets credit. They battled back. They played great defense all night. But I feel for our guys. Our guys battled back, played their asses off and deserved to win that game – or at least have a chance for one stop at the end to finish the game. And that was taken from us by a call that I don’t think an elementary-school referee would have made, because that guy would have had feel and said, ‘You know what? I’m not going to decide a game on a loose ball 80 feet from the basket.’ ”
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