The Golden State Warriors were voted as the best organization in The Athletic’s annual “Anonymous NBA Player Poll” released on Tuesday, April 22.
Among the 137 votes cast, the Warriors garnered 21.9%, followed by the Oklahoma City Thunder (17.5%) and the defending champion Boston Celtics (15.3%).
A former Warriors player interviewed by The Athletic put out a glowing review of the organization.
“They were first-class,” the player told The Athletic. “(Warriors coach) Steve (Kerr) came from San Antonio. He knew a lot of the principles. They do a really good job of taking care of the players and the families.”
When Kerr matched late Hall of Famer Al Attles for most coaching wins in franchise history with 557 in their 130-104 rout of the Sacramento Kings at home on March 13, Stephen Curry credited Kerr for creating a family atmosphere in the Warriors organization.
“Coach [Steve Kerr] allows family to be a part of what we do as much as possible,” Curry told reporters. “We got kids running around the practice courts. I realize when we all started this, we were all youngins in the league, and he’s seen our families grow one by one over the years. So it’s kind of cool that we get to share the on-court and off-court experience together. Just the idea, we’ve been all together for a very long time.”
Draymond Green also credited that family atmosphere to their winning tradition and their longevity as a dynasty.
“In this life that we live, we’re gone a lot, whether you’re in this gym for 10 hours, whether you’re on a road for 14 days, and when you have a coach like that that understands those things, it just makes work that much better,” Green told reporters.
As Steve Kerr gets ready to become the Warriors’ winningest coach in franchise history, Draymond Green gives a long, detailed answer on the imprint Kerr has had for this organization — from his secrets to winning in the playoffs, to everyone’s kids running around the court after… pic.twitter.com/s1YYi1DMVJ
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Jimmy Butler Feels Warriors ‘Better’ Than Any of His Past Teams
Even Jimmy Butler, who lost his joy in Miami and found it in Golden State, feels the Warriors organization is “better than any other organization he’s been a part of,” according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Butler has played in Chicago, Minnesota, Philadelphia and Miami before he was traded at the deadline to Golden State.
“I’m telling you it’s different this time,” Charania continued. “I haven’t sensed the same feeling he’s had when he went to Philly, when he went to Miami. This is different for Jimmy Butler going to Golden State.”
Charania said Butler has been staying late for shootarounds, practices and spending so much time in the training room, the meal room.
“He’s going above and beyond to ingratiate himself with the Warriors right now,” Charania added.
Steve Kerr’s 4 Core Principles
Kerr built the Warriors culture on four core principles: joy (playing with fun), mindfulness (being intentional and mindful of the process), compassion (playing with care) and competition (playing to win), which produced four championships in the last decade.
According to Forbes, Kerr formulated his core principles for the Warriors after meeting with Las Vegas Raiders coach Pete Carroll, who was coaching the Seattle Seahawks at the time of his hiring as Golden State coach.
Carroll asked Kerr during their meeting, “How are you going to coach your team?” Carroll was essentially asking, “Have you thought about team chemistry? What kind of culture do you want to create? How are you going to lead your team?”
Then Kerr combined some of the values he learned from his past coaches — Phil Jackson (Chicago Bulls) and Gregg Popovich (San Antonio Spurs) with his own to come up with the guiding principles that became the foundation of the Warriors culture under his watch.
