The Golden State Warriors are so good that they are getting to the point of being downright disrespectful to their opponents.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was on the sidelines for their game against the Phoenix Suns on Monday night, but he didn’t coach a second of the game. He left his normal duties up to his players, who seemed to handle it just fine in a just about uncontested 129-83 win.
Steve Kerr’s just letting the Warriors coach themselves. pic.twitter.com/GIRPtyMWML
— ESPN (@espn) February 13, 2018
Kerr insists that he meant no disrespect to the Suns or their own interim head coach Jay Triano, but some of the players clearly didn’t see it that way.
“I told Jay that people may make a big deal of it and it had nothing to do with being disrespectful,” Kerr said after the game. “It had everything to do with me trying to reach my team. I haven’t been able to reach them the last month. They are tired of my voice and I’m tired of my voice. It’s been a long haul these last few years. I wasn’t reaching them and we just figured it was probably a good night to pull a trick out of the hat and do something different.”
Suns forward Jared Dudley didn’t buy it.
“It shows a lack of respect for an opponent, and maybe right now, we don’t deserve respect,” Dudley said, perhaps suggesting the Suns should own it. “When you keep getting beat by 40, teams won’t respect you. But it’s up to us to change that.”
Jared Dudley to ESPN on Steve Kerr allowing his players to coach. “It shows a lack of respect for an opponent, and maybe right now, we don’t deserve respect. When you keep getting beat by 40, teams won’t respect you. But it’s up to us to change that.”
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) February 13, 2018
Personally I don’t know if I’m buying the fact that the former coach of the year can’t reach his team. The Warriors are still the best team in basketball right now and the teams that face them have enough of a challenge without being shown this kind of disrespect.