Steve Kerr Misplaces Anger As Shorthanded Warriors Continue to Lose

The Warriors lost a close one to the Knicks on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden. Of Golden State's starting lineup from opening night in October, Brandin Podziemski was the only one in uniform as the team blew a 21-point lead on NBC.

Jonathan Kuminga was benched and traded. Jimmy Butler suffered a season-ending injury. Stephen Curry is hurt and waiting to be reevaluated. And Draymond Green was resting his back, which meant that the on-court Draymond Green show did not go on against Karl-Anthony Towns.

Instead, guys like Will Richard, a rookie second-round pick by the Grizzlies, started and played 29 minutes. During the second quarter Richard failed to convert on a fast break. As he ran back on defense, Kerr was seen and heard screaming at him to take care of the ball as NBC’s microphones picked him up yelling, “the ball matters” and “the ball is everything!”

Steve Kerr furiously yells at Will Richard: "The ball is everything!"

He takes a timeout as the Warriors failed with the fastbreak and Knicks with a 3 at the other end, he is furious pic.twitter.com/v9qfCzxqVr
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) March 16, 2026

While there’s a non-zero percent chance one or both of those sentiments ends up on a T-shirt, they are clearly misplaced in this scenario. Podziemski threw a bad pass and Richard was just trying to save the ball, which Kerr acknowledged during his postgame remarks.

Steve Kerr on yelling at Will Richard after his turnover on the fastbreak:

“I was upset with him, but I kind of regret losing my composure a little bit there.”

Said he initially thought Richard was trying to get fancy with it. Also mentioned it was a bad pass from Podziemski. https://t.co/iYPDN4FwzE pic.twitter.com/dn2FGZP0tg
— Kenzo Fukuda (@kenzofuku) March 16, 2026

“I thought he could have caught the ball,” said Kerr. “It was a bad pass from BP. BP should have made a good pass, and Will’s got a dunk. It turns into a five-point swing. I was mad at Will because I thought he could have corralled the ball and not thrown it. I thought he was trying to make an around-the-back pass for a score. I might be wrong, but from my angle it looked like he could have corralled the ball and made a jump stop. I was really upset with the whole team for the second quarter. That’s where the game got away from us a little bit. Too many turnovers, too many careless plays.”

While he partially absolved Richard of blame on that play, he also acknowledged he had a lot to be mad about in that moment.

“Will had just gotten an offensive foul, pushing off so I was upset with him,” Kerr continued. “I kind of regret losing my composure a little bit there because it's my job to keep the guys going, especially when we're without so many players. That's a big part of winning a game like this. Is making good decisions and understanding how valuable the ball is. It started with Brandin’s pass to him. He tried to lead him instead of just hitting him. Then he put Will on a tough spot. I probably shouldn't have gotten as mad as I was.”

With four weeks remaining in the regular season, the Warriors have 15 games remaining on their schedule. They are basically locked into an eight, nine or 10 seed depending on Stephen Curry's next health update or how much time Kawhi Leonard misses with the Clippers. Then it’s a play-in game or two, and then the season mercifully ends unless they live long enough to be thrashed by the Thunder or Spurs.

Kerr could certainly use a break. Earlier this year he was talking about how much his mother worried about him when he was freaking out on referees. Now he's on national television, screaming at a rookie for a bad pass thrown by a teammate.

He can no longer hide his frustration, which is probably why so many people close to him expect him to walk away this offseason. He may only have a few more chances to make a scene on national television.

More NBA on Sports Illustrated