Steve Kerr Says Gregg Popovich Could Not Walk Away From Coaching

Steve Kerr is still measuring his Warriors future against the hardest part of Gregg Popovich's final years in San Antonio.

In an ESPN profile, Kerr spoke about how difficult it can be for coaches and great competitors to leave. He has watched last chapters turn awkward for decades. Michael Jordan retired, came back, retired again and came back again. Friends used to ask Kerr why Jordan would not leave on top.

"Because he can't," Kerr told them.

That same thought shaped the way Kerr viewed Popovich, his longtime mentor. The profile says Popovich once called Kerr to tell him he had decided to retire. Kerr congratulated him on a Hall of Fame career. One week later, Popovich signed an extension with the Spurs.

Kerr's read on that moment was plain. "I realized he couldn't do it," he said. "He couldn't walk away."

Popovich officially stepped aside six weeks before Kerr's lunch with ESPN, six months after a stroke changed him physically. The piece describes people close to Popovich helping him toward the exit gently. Kerr respected Popovich too much for that not to hurt.

Their bond gives the story its weight. Kerr played for Popovich, worked with him and once told him he was the finest man he had ever known. Popovich answered that his feet were made of clay like everyone else's. Kerr said he sees that differently now.

The question is not distant for Golden State. Kerr is still coaching Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and a Warriors group trying to stretch one more chapter from its era. Asked how he avoided the same trap, Kerr laughed and said, "I'm sitting here wondering."

He called the job addictive and said a coach has to trust himself while questioning his own motives. Walk away too early, and the itch remains. Stay too late, and someone else may have to make the ending clearer.

That is the uncomfortable line Kerr is trying to see before he reaches it. Popovich's career still ended as one of the greatest coaching runs in NBA history, but the last stage was not clean. Kerr's comments suggest he knows how easily loyalty, routine and the pull of competition can blur the right time to stop.