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Book excerpt: How Steve Kerr created a culture key to the Warriors' success

Related Topics: Steve Kerr., Jack McCallum

By Jack McCallum

After Golden State head coach Steve Kerr took the job, he walked into an immediate personnel dilemma: Should the team trade shooting guard Klay Thompson for Minnesota’s Kevin Love? (Thompson and Love, incidentally, had been teammates on the 2001 Lake Oswego [Oregon] Lakers all-star team that just missed a berth in the Little League World Series, Love an overpowering pitcher, Thompson a lithe shortstop.) At this point, remember that while Stephen Curry and Thompson had shown promise, they had not yet blossomed into a championship backcourt, while Love, a scorer and rebounder at 6-foot-10, was a consensus top-ten player.