Steve Kerr named USA Basketball coach – WQKT Sports Country Radio

Steve Kerr saw everything that Gregg Popovich went through as coach of the U.S. men’s national team, saw exactly how difficult it was last summer for the Americans to emerge from the Tokyo Olympics with another gold medal.

And when he walked off the floor for the last time in Tokyo, he was drained. He decided to take the job anyway.

Kerr was formally announced as the next coach of the U.S. men’s team on Monday in San Francisco, a not-very-well-kept secret in recent weeks that the Golden State coach would be taking over for Popovich and leading the Americans — if they qualify — into the 2023 Basketball World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Kerr’s assistant coaches will be Miami coach Erik Spoelstra, Phoenix coach Monty Williams and Gonzaga coach Mark Few.

Kerr on Monday called it a “dream job,” admitting even he was a little surprised that he got the call to be Team USA’s coach.

“It was a surprise, to be honest with you,” Kerr said during Monday’s news conference. “Even though we spent the whole summer together in Tokyo … it was just a wonderful experience to be part of USA Basketball. But you just don’t stop and think, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll be the head coach.’ It’s not something you even dream about. So you don’t even afford yourself that time and say, ‘I wonder if …’ You just put your head down, you work — when this call came, it gave me chills. It’s an opportunity of a lifetime, and I can’t wait to work with all these guys.”

Williams has been an assistant before, under former U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski. Spoelstra and Few were involved in coaching the U.S. select team, which was assembled to practice against the Olympic team, this past summer.

Kerr would be the 16th different coach to take the U.S. men into an Olympics. Of the previous 15, 13 have emerged with gold. His hiring for the job represents the first major decision by Grant Hill in his role as managing director of the men’s national team, the position he’s taking after Jerry Colangelo helped the Americans win the last four Olympic gold medals in that role.

One of the people both Kerr and Hill are hoping to work with is Golden State Warriors star guard Stephen Curry. Curry, 33, has participated in Team USA’s program through the years, but has yet to play in the Olympics. Curry spoke openly about wanting to play in Tokyo during the 2020 Games, before they were postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While Kerr and Hill are hopeful that Curry will decide to play in Paris in 2024, Kerr said it was too early to know whether Curry would play or not.