Nine days after Steve Kerr coached the USA Basketball men’s national team to a gold-medal game victory over France, one led by spectacular shooting down the stretch by Kerr’s Golden State Warriors’ guard Steph Curry, Kerr brought up Curry again. But this time, he did so in a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, referencing Curry’s famed “Night night” celebration and urging voters to give that to former president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on November 5:
Kerr: “After the results are tallied that night, we can — in the words of the great Steph Curry — we can tell Donald Trump, ‘night night.'” pic.twitter.com/pbiMmubiGV
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 20, 2024
“I’ll be working every day to help people get out the vote on November 5 and elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as the next president and vice-president of the United States. And, and, after the results are tallied that night, we can, in the words of the great Steph Curry, we can tell Donald Trump ‘Night night.'”
That celebration reference was only the end of Kerr’s remarks. He also spoke about why he felt the need to comment here:
Steve Kerr: “I know very well that speaking out about politics these days comes with risks. I can see the ‘shut up and whistle’ tweets fired off as we speak. But I also knew as an American citizen that it was too important not to speak up in an election of his magnitude.” pic.twitter.com/ETqQJqHKSB
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 20, 2024
And he had a joke about Walz’s football coaching days:
“Way too much reliance on the blitz in ’99 against Mankato East” — Steve Kerr teasing Tim Walz about his football coaching is the best pic.twitter.com/ksb64KZtjm
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 20, 2024
And, as a 1993-1998 player for the hometown Bulls, Kerr of course got the renowned Alan Parsons Project “Sirius” intro:
they did the Bulls classic intro for Steve Kerr! pic.twitter.com/It75IaqNHb
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 20, 2024
Speaking out on politics is far from new for Kerr. He’s often spoken out against gun violence (including the attempted assassination of Trump) following his father’s assassination in Lebanon in 1984, and he’s also chimed in on Colin Kaepernick, media, race, “stick to sports,” and more. But as per endorsements of specific candidates and parties, that’s a little more unusual for Kerr. But there is precedent for his actions here: he blasted Trump and his administration repeatedly from 2017-20 (and took some fire in return), and endorsed Harris last month. In a December 2016 New York Times feature on him and his family history, Kerr told John Branch why he was speaking up:
In November, after the presidential election, Kerr was among the N.B.A. coaches, including Popovich, who criticized the state of political discourse in the age of Donald J. Trump.
“People are getting paid millions of dollars to go on TV and scream at each other, whether it’s in sports or politics or entertainment, and I guess it was only a matter of time before it spilled into politics,” Kerr said. “But then all of a sudden you’re faced with the reality that the man who’s going to lead you has routinely used racist, misogynist, insulting words.”
So Kerr has certainly stuck to that anti-Trump tack. And he did so in a highly-prominent way Monday.
[Aaron Rupar on X/Twitter]
