NEW ORLEANS-The NBA world has descended upon New Orleans this weekend for the All-Star Game. Twenty-four players comprise the two rosters. Four of the weekend's biggest names are Warriors: Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.
But the team's private jet brought along another of the league's biggest newsmakers: Steve Kerr, the Western Conference coach, who has emerged as a leading voice on social issues during one of the most polarizing times in the country's history.
All in the last nine months, Kerr has spoken up about the Colin Kaepernick kneeling controversy, spoken out against Donald Trump's insensitive rhetoric, advocated for stricter gun control laws, suggested the use of medicinal marijuana over pain pills and slammed Trump's travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries.
"We have a president who has no regard for compassion or empathy, in the most important leadership position in the world," Kerr told the Bay Area News Group. "The most important thing in being a leader-as a parent, a teacher, a coach-is dignity for the position you are in, empathy for others. You're trying to help people. And it feels like we're in a time where our leader is just ridiculing constantly-on Twitter, whether it's making fun of a handicapped person, or tweeting about how horrible Saturday Night Live is, the failing New York Times, casting the media as the opposition. This is not leadership. And I think people realize that. It should not matter if you are a conservative or a liberal. It's about leadership, it's about compassion and dignity and character and treating people the right way. That's leadership. It's terrifying we have someone in office who espouses none of that. I think that's why I'm encouraged by all the people who recognize that, are appalled by it and are trying to do something."
Kerr is one of them?
In a coaching profession that is traditionally all sports, all the time-where consumers go to escape the real world and aligned fanbases have split political views-why has he become so willing to speak his mind on controversial topics? A collision of factors have led to this moment: Right market, right league, right team, right time, right man.
To speak knowledgeably, you must first have the knowledge. Kerr's upbringing is unique and well-known. It's been documented in several places. His players have read up.
"Coach Kerr has been through so much in his life personally," Durant said. "He realizes, checks the pulse of our country and our world. He knows exactly what he's talking about. He's so informed and intelligent when it comes to topics, social issues. He gets it and a lot of coaches don't."
Kerr was born in Lebanon. He spent much of his childhood either in Los Angeles or traveling throughout the Middle East. His father, Malcolm, was a decorated academic who became the chairman of the Department of Political Sciences at UCLA and later the president of the American University of Beirut.
Kerr's first memories of political conversations happened at the dinner table when he was 7. His parents would regularly discuss the 1972 presidential race between Richard Nixon and George McGovern. The Vietnam War was going on. The evening news was always on. He moved to Egypt when he was 10 with his father, who was on a sabbatical.
"We talked a lot about world politics," Kerr said. "That was when I first started to try to make some sense of it and think about it. Then a few years later, it became pretty prominent in my mind. Late 70s, I was 13, 14, started reading about stuff. That was a pretty important time-the peace process, Camp David, President Carter getting Begin and Sadat together."
His father was shot and killed in 1984 on campus in Beirut. He was targeted in an act of terrorism. The tragedy forever remains with Kerr and infuses passion, context and understanding into some of his views. That includes the first topic he spoke out about as a Warrior coach.
This past June 12, at 2:02 a.m., 29-year-old Omar Mateen walked into Pulse, a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, and opened fire with semi-automatic weapons. Over the next three hours, he'd kill 49 and injure 53 more.
It was the deadliest single-suspect shooting in U.S. history. News of the overnight massacre spread across the awakening nation.
Kerr woke up that morning expected to be buried in basketball. It was between Games 4 and 5 of the NBA Finals. Draymond Green would be suspended later that afternoon. Their strategy needed to be altered. A championship was within reach. But basketball felt a bit inconsequential compared to the horrific images from Orlando.
"I remember feeling so disgusted," Kerr said. "So disheartened."
Twelve days later, Kerr appeared on a podcast with Bay Area News Group columnist Tim Kawakami. He answered questions about his team's blown 3-1 lead, some strategic missteps, some offseason plans and then, as the podcast was wrapping up, he asked Kawakami: "Can I mention one more thing?"
Kerr then spent the next several minutes delivering an impassioned plea for better gun control, calling the government's current policies on it "insane."
"You wonder if any of these Senators and Congressmen and women who are so opposed to even holding a vote on not only the right to buy an automatic weapon but just the background checks and the lists," Kerr said. "How would they feel about this if their own child, their own mother, their own father, sister, brother, wife, husband was murdered. Mass murdered. Would that change your mind? I don't know, but how many times do we have to go through this before our government actually does something about it?"
Kerr's developed a simple strategy: If he's versed and he's passionate and he's asked about a subject, he'll answer. If he's not, he won't. The gun control comment was the only one that didn't stem directly from a question.
He doesn't avoid controversies, but he tries not to search them out. He's declined several recent invites from CNN and other political stations to be a panelist or tell his story.
"I talk to my wife about what she thinks, what's appropriate, what's not," Kerr said. "I'm sensitive to the fact that I'm kind of part of the face of the organization-Steph, KD, Bob (Myers), Joe (Lacob)-we're all interviewed the most. But I don't necessarily represent the views of everyone in the organization. So that's a line I have to walk and I'm wary of. I don't want to anger anyone in our organization. So I try to say things from a place of practicality."
Kerr had back surgery two years ago. There were medical complications that led to headaches and excruciating pain. In his search for treatment, he tried marijuana a couple times.
A few months back-first in a CSN podcast, then in a press conference setting-Kerr was asked about and then delivered his strong stance that medical marijuana was far safer and smarter than pain pills because of their addictive dangers. In nearly every answer, he stressed his extensive research on the subject. It stirred up a national conversation.
"I think you should only say something if you're comfortable saying it," Kerr said of other coaches remaining quiet. "There could be plenty of reasons why people would not be comfortable-whether it's their personal beliefs. I know there are certain things I would never talk about because I don't know about them."
Much like his childhood, Kerr had a unique, informed NBA upbringing, playing under two of the league's greatest, most outspoken coaches: Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich. Jackson used to gather those Bulls teams for open forums.
"I remember Phil one time asked our team: 'How many of you own guns?'" Kerr said. "'How many of you know that you're more likely to have a death in your home with a gun than without a gun?'"
Popovich, along with Kerr and Stan Van Gundy, is one of only three current coaches in the four major sports regularly speaking out on political topics. Kerr considers Popovich a mentor.
"He was in the military, went to the Air Force academy, served his country," Kerr said. "From a world-view, Russian major, studied Eastern Europe. Every time you go into his office, CNN is on, not SportsCenter."
While playing under Popovich for the Spurs, Kerr made his first controversial comments to the press. It came after the 9/11 attacks. Kerr opposed the Iraq War. "Being in Texas, it wasn't the most popular stance," he remembers.
This wasn't the social media age. So his comments didn't erupt across the planet. But San Antonio is a proud military town. There were several letters to the editor at the local paper calling him unpatriotic. Kerr held his ground.
"I think there's a big difference in supporting the military and protesting the war," Kerr said. "I don't think those are mutually exclusive. If anything, people who protested that war were actually being much more patriotic than people who were fervently waving the flag without giving the war much thought. The damage that's done, the lives that were lost, the families that were forever changed. People need to stop and think, while they're waving the flag and chanting USA, is the war just?"
In the years since, Kerr didn't lose his political zest. He's a constant consumer of content and willing to speak his mind. But a combination of factors led him to the point where, in the past nine months, he's become an important, sought-after, willing voice. Job security is one.
"When you start a new job, you don't just come in and do that," assistant Ron Adams said. "But once you win a championship, people take notice."
Plus he's in the ideal market and league-the Bay Area and NBA-which provide a progressive, left-leaning safe haven. Kerr has seen plenty of blowback for his comments, but says the criticism has all been online. In person, he's only been thanked for speaking out.
"When I was (a player) in the NBA, there were plenty of conservatives in the locker room, usually having to do with just taxes," Kerr said. "Fiscal conservatives. Which makes sense. Vote for one guy and you save a lot more money. So there were plenty of guys who voted Republican. Nowadays I think there are very few. But it's almost 100 percent based on social justice. Whether it's police killings that players can now look at on their phone or immigration laws that affect 100 foreign players in the league or the tone of racism that's gone on in this recent campaign, you have a lot more guys who are not only leaning to the left, but much more willing to speak up."
The Warriors have a few: Green, Andre Iguodala, David West, even Curry recently. Kerr has gathered the team for occasional open forums, but it's mostly just personal conversations.
"Everything has been overwhelmingly positive in terms of what our players are actually talking about," Kerr said. "It's compassion, it's empathy. If it deals with policy, it's generally just civil rights stuff. I don't see our players going out there and talking about controversial subjects very often. It's more about empathy and compassion and rights."
Kerr chatted with Curry recently about his Under Armour comments and West about his concerns regarding Betsy DeVos' nomination for the U.S. Secretary of Education.
"It's refreshing, honestly, to have someone so engaged with what's going on in our world," West said. "That knows that things going on outside this NBA bubble can clearly affect folks inside the bubble."
But Kerr just views it as proper leadership at a time when it is needed more than ever.
"What we're seeing right now, there's a lot of chaos, a lot of turmoil," Kerr said. "I think it's important we don't just sit back and idly let all these things happen."