Getty Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr shouts to his team.
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr might throw a party or take his team to dinner after becoming the highest-paid coach in NBA history.
But that has to wait.
Kerr’s first expense after he agreed to a $35 million, two-year extension, the richest deal per year for an NBA coach, is to foot the bill on Lester Quiñones‘ fine for his ejection in their 97-84 rout of the Charlotte Hornets on Friday, February 23, at Chase Center.
“Oh my gosh that is a lot of money,” Warriors rookie guard Brandin Podziemski told reporters of the Kerr’s massive extension deal. “But he told us after that he’s going to pay for Lester’s ejection and he just said ‘Thank you’ to everybody that’s kind of contributed over the years — the coaches, the players that really made it possible for him. So, I think that was a big time for him to say. But yeah, I think he’s earned it: four championships with this group, and looking to make it five this year. So I think he’s definitely earned it.”
Quiñones was just following Kerr’s orders when he shot the ball in the closing seconds of their third straight win, and 10th over their last 12, which led to an endgame melee involving Hornets forwards Grant Williams and Miles Bridges.
“I’ve always told our team for [the last] 10 years, if there’s a shot clock differential, you keep playing,” Kerr told reporters after the win. “That’s to me the game tells you to keep playing and we’ve always done it that way.”
‘Nobody’s Ever Been Offended’
Quiñones and Williams were ejected with 10.9 seconds remaining after they jawed at each other during the fracas while Bridges received a technical foul.
The pair of Hornets forwards took offense to Quiñones scoring on a layup with the Warriors’ win already wrapped up.
“Nobody’s ever been offended and they were pressing the last few minutes,” Kerr said. “You still play the game as soon as there’s no shot clock differential, then you sit on the ball and you let the clock run out. But if there’s a differential, I think guys should always keep playing. And to me, it’s very strange why that would be offensive to anybody.”
Draymond Green Unloads on Grant Williams
Warriors forward Draymond Green took exception to Williams ‘tough guy’ persona after the melee.
“Miles [Bridges] is my guy, that’s my little brother, so I’m not going to sit here and go in on Miles,” Green said. “Miles can do no wrong to me. But Grant Williams got to stop it, man. He can’t keep being like this tough guy. It’s going absolutely wrong for him.
Like he’s a really nice guy and, and for some reason, he keeps like trying to jump on the unlikable side and I must tell you it’s not always fun over here. It’s not always a good time. I don’t know, man, he needs to figure it out. Talking too much kind of got you out of Dallas, like overdoing it and he over there talking too much now. So you might want to slow down and stop all the tough guy stuff.”
Grant was recently traded to the Hornets from the Mavericks because he “rubbed a lot of people the wrong way,” per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.