Mutual respect between LeBron, Kerr reaches new heights with Team USA

Mutual respect between LeBron, Kerr reaches new heights with Team USA originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

LAS VEGAS – Greatness has to be felt on a personal level to be fully understood — especially the process of what it takes to make the extraordinary become routine.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who is leading Team USA Men’s Basketball one last time at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, knows he was lucky enough to bear witness to greatness in his playing career, being coached by the likes of Lute Olsen, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Lenny Wilkens, Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich. Kerr also played alongside some of basketball’s Herculean heroes in Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker.

For the last decade of Golden State’s dynasty, Kerr has watched from the sidelines as Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala helped bring four championship parades to the Bay Area. He knows the work that went behind them becoming multiple-time champions, and he arrived right as Curry began evolving from a baby-faced, skinny-armed 3-point shooter into the kind of superstar who will be remembered for generations to come.

Now after years of competing against one another, Kerr has another opportunity to do something he never fathomed: Coach LeBron James. And he already can’t believe his eyes.

Not because of James’ talent that has him behind one man and one man only when making lists of the best to ever pick up a basketball. But how he approaches the job the second his alarm clock goes off.

“I was blown away by how hard he practices,” Kerr said Saturday after Team USA’s first training camp practice at UNLV. “And I went to [assistant coach Ty Lue] and [assistant coach Erik Spoelstra] and I said, ‘Is this normal?’ They said, ‘Every day, every day.’ To Spo I said, ‘What about way back when you got him?’ Spo said, ‘Every day. Every drill, every walkthrough.’”

James will be 40 years old in December. Nicknamed King James and the Chosen One for obvious reasons, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer who was born in the same…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mutual-respect-between-lebron-kerr-181749173.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2024-07-07 18:26:12

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