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Oakland, Calif. • The Golden State Warriors are taking another chance on a television analyst and former NBA guard who has never been a head coach at any level.
The Warriors won the bidding war with the New York Knicks for Steve Kerr on Wednesday, hiring him away from the TNT broadcast table to be their coach. Kerr agreed to a five-year, $25 million deal with Golden State, said his agent, Mike Tannenbaum.
The Warriors confirmed the agreement Wednesday night and said they will introduce Kerr at a news conference after the contract is complete.
Kerr had been in talks with the Knicks about becoming their coach since Phil Jackson took over as team president in March. He won three titles playing for Jackson in Chicago and another two under Gregg Popovich in San Antonio.
Kerr, 48, also spent three seasons as general manager of the Phoenix Suns before stepping down in June 2010. He replaces Mark Jackson, who was fired by the Warriors on May 6 after three seasons and back-to-back playoff appearances mostly due to a sour relationship between him and team management.
Kerr said last month that he has wanted to coach since going back to his job at TNT. And while the lure of building a contender with his mentor at Madison Square Garden looked appealing, the chance to coach a Western Conference contender in his home state proved to be too much.
The Warriors job is certainly a far more attractive one than when owner Joe Lacob hired Jackson away from the ESPN/ABC broadcast table in June 2011. The Warriors are coming off a 51-win season and consecutive playoff appearances for the first time in 20 years, and they've surrounded star Stephen Curry with a talented young core.
Kerr became the hottest coaching candidate on the market after Phil Jackson started courting him to the Knicks two months ago. Kerr also has close ties to Lacob, his son, assistant GM Kirk Lacob, and Warriors President Rick Welts, who worked in Phoenix's front office during Kerr's time as Suns general manager.
Given the disagreements that occurred between Jackson and Warriors management last season — and the back-and-forth that played out between them in the media after Jackson was dismissed — having an established relationship with Kerr was a big reason Lacob wanted him as coach.
Last week, Lacob lauded Kerr as a candidate and defended the decision to change coaches — which has been debated at great lengths in the basketball-united Bay Area. He compared the decision to how he built his fortune as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.
Lacob said there's a different person to lead a business at different stages of development, and the Warriors have gone from a "startup" company to an organization looking to maximize its output.
"Or in this case win an NBA championship," he said. "And we just felt overall we needed a different person to go forward and get to the next level."
And while Kerr has no coaching experience, he played 15 seasons and — also similar to Mark Jackson — he has been around some of the most successful sideline leaders.
Kerr has credited Phil Jackson and Tex Winter for most of his basketball knowledge. Winter taught the triangle offense and was a longtime assistant for Jackson, who used the system to win an NBA-record 11 championships as a coach of the Bulls and Lakers.
Golden State also spoke with former Orlando Magic and Miami Heat coach Stan Van Gundy during its search. Van Gundy agreed to a deal with Detroit on Tuesday after the Pistons gave him control of basketball operations — something the Warriors wouldn't do with general manager Bob Myers and Kirk Lacob in place.
The Warriors met with Kerr again on Tuesday night in Oklahoma City, where Kerr was calling the Thunder-Clippers game. And they apparently made a big enough impression — and contract offer — to land the man they wanted all along.
Around the league
Pistons • The Detroit Pistons are counting on Stan Van Gundy to bring some much-needed stability to a struggling franchise.
They're certainly giving him plenty of authority.
The Pistons officially announced Van Gundy's hiring Wednesday as their new coach and president of basketball operations. The team will introduce Van Gundy at a news conference Thursday. Detroit went 29-53 last season, missing the playoffs for a fifth straight year. That was the end of Joe Dumars' tenure as team president. Coach Maurice Cheeks was fired in February.
"Stan is a proven winner in our league," Pistons owner Tom Gores said in a statement. "He instills his teams with passion, purpose and toughness. He is a great teacher who will help our players grow and develop."
Van Gundy agreed to a $35 million, five-year contract — a commitment from the team that suggests he'll have plenty of time to turn Detroit's fortunes around. Dumars stepped down after 15 seasons in the front office, and toward the end of his tenure, the Pistons seemed increasingly adrift as they hired coach after coach with little success.
Cheeks lasted less than one year. Before him, Lawrence Frank and John Kuester were each at the helm for two seasons.
Van Gundy is 371-208 in seven-plus seasons as a coach with Miami and Orlando. He reached the NBA finals in 2009 with the Magic.
"It is an honor to be chosen to help Tom Gores build the Pistons into a team that competes for championships," Van Gundy said. "Tom's vision of building for the future, while seeking immediate improvement is a challenge that I embrace. We will work to put a team on the floor that reflects the franchise's rich tradition and embodies the toughness and work ethic of fans in the Detroit area."
The Pistons were active last offseason, signing free agent Josh Smith and trading for point guard Brandon Jennings. Amid heightened expectations, the new-look roster flopped. Cheeks was fired and replaced by interim coach John Loyer.
Van Gundy takes over now — and he'll have a chance to reshape the lineup before he has to coach it. Greg Monroe is a restricted free agent, and both Rodney Stuckey and Charlie Villanueva are unrestricted. Villanueva barely played last season, but Monroe and Stuckey were major parts of Detroit's rotation.
The Pistons have one of the game's top young big men in Andre Drummond, but they'll lose this year's first-round draft pick if it's not in the top eight — part of a previous trade with Charlotte.
Van Gundy gives the Pistons a big name — and the hope that he can produce won-loss records similar to his time in Miami and Orlando. It will be a fresh start for Van Gundy, who was fired by the Magic in 2012 after a season full of drama involving him and star center Dwight Howard.
In April of that year, Van Gundy claimed top-ranking team officials had told him that Howard had asked management to fire Van Gundy as a condition of the center signing a long-term contract. Howard denied it.
Van Gundy was fired the following month, and the Magic traded Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Before the tumultuous 2011-12 season, Orlando won at least 52 games in its first four seasons under Van Gundy.
"Stan is more than just a great coach, he's a great leader," Gores said. "What I'm most excited about is how Stan can help us shape the franchise and instill what it means to be the best. He's also a great communicator. My time with Stan has me convinced that he will bring our players, team and community to a very proud place."
Heat • LeBron James of the Miami Heat reaffirms that he's pleased with the initial response from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to racist remarks made by now-banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
Players union vice president and former Heat guard Roger Mason Jr. told Showtime that James will boycott games if Sterling is not removed as owner. But after the story escalated Wednesday, Mason Jr. tweeted that James "never said anything about boycotting."
James says players see what Silver's doing and that if the commissioner continues moving aggressively, "then we have nothing to worry about."
Sterling was banned for life from the NBA over his comments. The league is in a process that would lead to the Clippers owner being forced to sell the club.