by Paul Teetor
Steve Kerr said he can already hear the push back to his speech at the Democratic National Convention: Shut up and blow your whistle.
For those who don’t watch Fox News, that’s a clever riff on Fox host Laura Ingrahm’s response a few years ago to LeBron’s James Twitter fight with President Donald Trump.
“Shut up and dribble,” Ingrahm told LeBron, although not to his face. Never to his face. That’s not the Fox way.
In the Fox world, highly paid athletes should stick to their sports, be grateful for all their money and stay out of politics. Highly paid coaches like Kerr should do the same: count their money and stick to using their whistle to start practice and end practice.
Let the adults argue politics.
But the Golden State Warriors Coach decided to ignore Ingrahm and the other right-wing haters and do what his heart told him to do: endorse Kamala Harris for President and Tim Walz for Vice President in a moving, seven-minute speech to a packed house Thursday night.
He even appropriated his star player’s signature move: the head on hands “Nighty night” gesture by Steph Curry after he hits yet another game winning shot to put the other team’s hopes of winning to sleep.
Only this time Kerr said the Democrats and Harris would be giving the “Nighty night” message to Donald Trump on Election Day, November 5.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for the 58-year-old Kerr, who grew up in Pacific Palisades, went to Arizona to play basketball and later played for the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs in the NBA.
First he led Team USA to a thrilling Olympic victory over France in the Gold Medal Game. Then the Democrats invited him to speak at their Chicago Convention, which was being held in the United Center, where Kerr won three NBA championships alongside Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, with Head Coach Phil Jackson calling the shots from the sidelines.
It is also the place near where Kerr delivered one of the most memorable lines in sports history, a line that is still quoted almost 30 years later. Kerr had nailed a 20-foot jump shot on a slick pass from Jordan in the last second to win the 1997 NBA Finals.
At the team’s victory parade a couple of days later, Kerr was asked about the shot.
He explained that it was the product of Jordan not being comfortable in big moments and being aware that he should pass the ball to a more confident shooter. Jordan was double teamed so he rifled a pass to Kerr. “I thought to myself, well, I guess I gotta bail out Michael again,” Kerr told a roaring crowd, who definitely got the joke: Jordan was the greatest clutch player in NBA history.
Kerr faced another roaring crowd at the DNC. Without once actually naming Trump, he delivered a blistering takedown of Trump and his leadership style that all of America saw during his four crazy, chaotic years as president.
Kerr listed the characteristics he believes a true leader should have whether they are in sports, business or politics.
“I believe a true leader must display dignity,” Kerr said. “I believe true leaders must tell the truth. I believe true leaders must care for and love the people they are leading. And I believe they must be able to laugh at themselves.”
By now the crowd was roaring at his nameless takedown.
“I believe true leaders must possess knowledge and expertise with the full awareness that no one has all the answers and that some of the best answers often come from members of the team,” Kerr said. “And if those are the qualities you look for in a teacher or a boss or a mayor, shouldn’t you want those same qualities in your president? When you think about it that way, this is no contest. I see all those qualities in Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.”
In choosing to accept the Democrats invitation to speak, Kerr was breaking an unspoken sports rule that mostly prevailed until very recently: don’t take sides in politics. All you’ll do is alienate half your audience.
Ironically it was Kerr’s old teammate, Jordan, who said it best in 1987: “Republicans buy sneakers too.”
But in recent years that unspoken rule has started to fade, especially in the NBA.
San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich recently called Trump “a soulless coward” and Kerr led the championship-winning Warriors in skipping a White House visit when Trump was in office.
But Thursday night he took it to a whole new level by shooting a three-pointer directly at Trump.
To quote legendary Clippers broadcaster Ralph Lawler when the basketball went through the net: Bingo!
Shohei Living the Dream
It’s every Little Leaguer’s fantasy come true, whether in the backyard, the local playground or Dodgers Stadium.
Two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, tie game, and you come to the plate with the bases loaded.
Bam!
You hammer a walk-off home run for a grand slam. Your teammates mob you at the plate and the home crowd goes absolutely nuts for a full ten minutes.
But this was no Little Leaguer’s fantasy.
This was Shohei Ohtani showing why he deserves his first National League MVP award after winning two American League MVPs with the Angels.
Friday night he did something never done before in the more than 120 years of big-league baseball: he joined the 40-40 club – 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases — faster than anyone else in baseball history.
The 40-40 club only has five members – Jose Canseco, Alfonso Soriano, Ronald Acuna Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds – but none of them achieved those two milestones in the same game.
Only Ohtani.
All Ball predicts that this is only the first of many such records Ohtani will achieve over the next nine seasons, thanks to the 10-year, $700 million contract he signed last winter.
But it was the walk-off homer that was most celebrated by Dodger fans for a simple reason: the Dodgers lead over the red-hot Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West has been cut from 12 games to three games in the last month. This was a desperately needed win to stay in first place, and Ohtani delivered big-time.
Next stop: the 50-50 club, which should happen in mid-to-late September.
When that happens, it will be a club with only one member: Shohei Ohtani.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. ER
