It’s very likely that ESPN hoped Steve Kerr would part ways with the Golden State Warriors and join the network’s NBA coverage.
But ESPN is adamant that the network did not offer him $7 million per year, as “reported” by Awful Announcing.
Burke Magnus, ESPN executive vice president of programming and original content, pushed back Sunday after the sports media blog published a story headlined, “ESPN reportedly offered Steve Kerr $7M annually.” Magnus quote-posted the story on X and wrote, “For anyone that may care, this is not true.”
Awful Announcing later updated its story with a stronger denial from Magnus.
“We have too much respect for Coach Kerr. We were not even going to engage until he made a decision on coaching,” Magnus said, according to the blog.
The original report came from Tim Kawakami of the San Francisco Standard, who did not say that ESPN offered Kerr $7 million. Kawakami wrote Saturday that Kerr “can walk into a top analyst’s job anytime he wants,” that ESPN was “especially aggressive about the chase” and was “probably offering up to $7 million per.” He also wrote that ESPN was willing to meet almost any possible condition, including keeping Kerr away from hot-take panel shows.
Awful Announcing, which lived up to its name with this story, decided to write that ESPN offered Kerr $7 million per year. The network clearly did not appreciate the misleading aggregation and responded publicly, which only underscored how strongly ESPN objected to the framing.
Kerr agreed to a two-year deal to remain with Golden State, ending weeks of uncertainty about whether he would continue coaching Stephen Curry and the Warriors. Kawakami reported that Kerr’s annual salary is expected to remain near the $17.5 million figure he earned previously, which keeps him as the NBA’s highest-paid coach.
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Of course, ESPN’s interest in Kerr made perfect sense.
As OutKick wrote last week, Kerr was a perfect fit for ESPN. Sure, 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 the sport.
But there was another obvious reason Kerr would fit in with the left-leaning sports network. Kerr is an outspoken progressive. He has spent years weighing in on gun control, immigration, Donald Trump and other political issues. He also recently sounded like a man trying to clean up some of that record, admitting he was “wrong” on Hong Kong and saying he regretted calling Trump a “buffoon” in a softball New Yorker interview.
ESPN wanting him for its NBA coverage was logical. ESPN offering him a $7 million-per-year contract, according to a top company executive, was not true.
The network has spent years trying to stabilize its NBA booth. It fired Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, brought in Doc Rivers before he left for the Bucks, elevated Doris Burke, watched J.J. Redick leave to coach the Lakers and eventually moved Tim Legler into the lead group with Mike Breen and Richard Jefferson. ESPN also secured the rights to distribute TNT’s “Inside the NBA” as part of its larger NBA media push.
So, yes, Kerr would have made sense. And Magnus didn’t deny interest in Kerr; he denied that the company would even offer Kerr a formal contract before he made a decision about his coaching future. Perhaps they were prepared to pay Kerr $7 million annually, or maybe more. Perhaps they weren’t willing to go that high. The public may never know since Kerr is headed back to the Warriors on a two-year deal.
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He probably would have made ESPN’s NBA broadcasts better from a pure basketball perspective. There’s no question Kerr has a high basketball IQ. He also would have given the network another high-profile progressive voice, which, whether ESPN wants to admit it or not, is exactly the kind of sports personality it has spent years elevating.
But for now, Kerr is staying in Golden State.
And ESPN wants everyone to know it did not offer him $7 million per year to leave.
