Steve Kerr’s future with the Golden State Warriors is uncertain.
Naturally, ESPN is interested.
The network is reportedly “aggressively” pursuing Kerr for a potential NBA broadcasting role as the Warriors coach considers what comes next after a disappointing Golden State season, according to NBA reporter Marc Stein. The Warriors finished with a losing record for the first time since 2019-20.
Kerr is in the final year of his contract, and with no extension currently in place, ESPN apparently sees an opportunity.
Of course it does.
Kerr is a four-time NBA champion as a head coach, a five-time champion as a player, a former TNT broadcaster and one of the most recognizable figures in basketball. From a pure NBA television standpoint, the interest makes sense.
But let’s not pretend there isn’t another reason ESPN would love this.
Kerr is exactly the kind of sports figure ESPN has spent years elevating: famous, media-trained, politically outspoken and a left-wing progressive. If only he were Black (and possibly a woman), he’d be perfect.
Kerr has been one of the loudest political voices in American sports over the last decade. He’s talked about gun control. He’s criticized Donald Trump. He’s weighed in on immigration (incorrectly, we might add). He’s taken public positions on major culture-war issues. And, in each case, he’s taken the position one might expect a left-winger to take.
That matters for ESPN, even if the company has done a better job recently of rooting out some of its most extreme left-wing and hateful commentators and analysts.
The network has spent the last several years trying to figure out what exactly it wants its NBA coverage to be. It fired Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson. It brought in Doc Rivers (another outspoken left-winger), only for Rivers to leave for the Bucks job (probably a fortunate result for ESPN). It moved JJ Redick into the booth, then watched him leave to coach the Lakers. It elevated Doris Burke, then moved Tim Legler into the lead booth alongside Mike Breen, Richard Jefferson and Lisa Salters for the 2025-26 season.
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It’s the same type of carousel that ESPN had with the “Monday Night Football” booth before spending a fortune to pluck Joe Buck and Troy Aikman from Fox. ESPN needs stability in its NBA broadcast booth because the company spent an even bigger fortune to make itself the league’s main media partner. That included the rights to distribute the TNT-produced “Inside the NBA” to secure its studio coverage.
Kerr makes sense as a potential lead analyst on game broadcasts, including the NBA Finals. There’s arguably no one better to talk about the NBA playoffs on broadcasts during the postseason than a guy who has won nine NBA titles as a player and a coach. Plus, he’s done television before, so it wouldn’t be like when ESPN tried to send Jason Witten right from the field into one of the most prominent positions in sports television (spoiler alert: It didn’t work).
So, yes, ESPN wanting Kerr is completely logical.
It’s also very ESPN.
This is the same network that spent years insisting it wanted to focus more on sports while constantly drifting back into politics whenever the right personality gave it permission. Kerr would give ESPN exactly that kind of permission. He’d be able to break down a Lakers-Nuggets pick-and-roll one minute, then offer a lecture about immigration laws or gun control in the next.
There’s no guarantee that Kerr won’t continue coaching. Some might argue that his recent posture, specifically saying he regretted calling Trump a “buffoon,” might be an attempt to tone down his political rhetoric to make him more palatable to a league that is trying to alienate fewer fans than it has in the past.
Golden State’s entire modern identity is tied to Kerr and Steph Curry. Walking away from that, especially while Curry is still playing, wouldn’t be an easy decision.
But it’s also not hard to see why Kerr might want to move on.
The Warriors aren’t the Warriors anymore and the dynasty is dead. Television would be much easier.
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And if Kerr does leave coaching for broadcasting, ESPN would probably be the most natural landing spot. The network wants big names. Kerr is a big name who would undoubtedly make ESPN’s NBA coverage smarter (strictly from a basketball perspective).
He’d also make it more predictably political, because that’s who Kerr is. He can’t help himself. Lucky for him, ESPN is the type of place where he’d fit right in.
They probably want him because of his outspoken political rhetoric, not in spite of it.
