Warriors head coach Steve Kerr earned his first career ejection in Saturday’s loss to the Kings, after he subjected referees to a profanity-laced tirade following a number of questionable calls.
The officials apparently weren’t the only ones who felt Kerr’s conduct was inappropriate. Kerr revealed to Tolbert and Lund on Friday that his mom was also not happy with his behavior, and left a stern message on his answering machine the next day.
“I knew it was bad when my mom called me the next day and left a message, first calling me “Steven,” and then saying ‘I should’ve come up there and spanked you for that,’” Kerr said. “I’m like mom I’m 51, I’m not 10 anymore.”
Kerr said that he was not trying to get ejected as many assumed, but rather trying to get just one technical to fire up his team. Surprised by being immediately tossed, he decided to get his money’s worth.
“I was upset at the technical that Draymond got,” Kerr began. “That was what set me off because the official made a bad call, which is going to happen. My feeling with officials is if they make a bad call and they know it, the best way to diffuse everything is to just come by the bench and say ‘hey, I missed that one.’ I never have a problem with an official if he says that. Like, ‘hey thanks for saying it,’ then we move on. Because there’s no response to that, and at the same time (the official’s) got to have a longer fuse if a player says something to you, and I was upset because he gave the tech to Draymond, which I didn’t think was deserved.”
“So I went out and tried to get a T. All I did was I walked out kind’ve on the floor, definitely on the floor, and did like a fist pump thing. I was thinking I was going to get one T, you know just to back up my players and maybe get them going, but he tossed me on the fist pump. At that point I was already gone — like I’m getting my money’s worth now.”
Kerr has since apologized for the incident and said he will do the same to the official that was subjected to his outburst.
“I had to go with it, I deserved the fine,” Kerr said. “I actually am embarrassed. You can snap, but I definitely said some words I shouldn’t have and I’ll apologize to (referee) Bill Spooner next time I see him, he didn’t deserve that.”