Steve Kerr Told Michael Jordan Story To Kevin Durant During Middle Of Game 5

[RealGM Wiretap]

During the third quarter of Game 5, Steve Kerr told Kevin Durant a story about Michael Jordan trusting his teammates.

"When MJ was with the Bulls, we had a playoff game," Kerr began the story as he was mic'd up by TNT. "He kept trying to score and he was scoring, but we weren't getting anything going. Phil Jackson said 'Who's open?' He said, 'John Paxson.'"

Paxson hit the series-clinching shot in Game 6 of the 1993 Finals off a Jordan pass, while Kerr also hit a game-winning shot in The Finals from a Jordan assist.

"I want to trust your teammates early," Kerr said. "What you're doing is you're getting to the rim and then you're trying to hit him. I want you to trust the first guy and then move. Still attack, still look to score, but trust these guys, OK?"

Via Dan Santaromita/NBC Sports

[CIN-C-STAR]

Yeah but Jordan came into the league already a better passer than Durant is now.
Tbh Durant should just look for buckets. It's the only thing he does at an elite level. If you start asking him to be a play maker the turnovers will kill your defense and the hesitation will kill his efficiency.
Long story short: Durant is no Jordan as an all-around player, and it's not particularly close.

[SixStringAxis]

I get it but I still find it funny anyone would have to be told "trust your teammate's", on the most stacked team in the history of sports.

[MartinToVaught]

And Durant responded by running more isos. He cares more about making it look like he's carrying his team than actually doing what's best for the team. All because he can't admit that he made the weakest free-agency decision in sports history.

[pwrshft99]

Durant's not that guy, Steph is that guy.

Durant's role in Golden States offense should be a superior version of Klay

[gordoncatrell]

And Durant responded by running more isos. He cares more about making it look like he's carrying his team than actually doing what's best for the team. All because he can't admit that he made the weakest free-agency decision in sports history.

CURRY guilty too. CURRY KD playing YourTurn-MyTurn

[gordoncatrell]

has Coach Kerr taken the time to tell Curry about the time MJ didnt dance until he had the trophy and the confetti was on the court.

[davidavydave]

It's good advice in general. But not for Durant in THIS stacked team. Durant needs to flatout be a SCORER. It's cool and all to share the wealth and have everybody get along and win together. But at the end of the day, be a champion. Know you who you are and what you bring to the team. Durant has absolutely no excuse to not score 40+ a game. Especially in this series. All he really has to do is just play his basic game. His one/two dribble pull up, and his catch-and-shoot are so deadly. It'll force players to double team him every time.....leaving Steph, Klay, Draymond, Iggy, or whoever else open.

The only thing he should adjust is to NOT go to the post every time he iso's. It's just not his strength. He's tall. He's not big. He isn't really creating space or getting closer to the rim by posting up. He just has the ability to shoot over any defender.....so why make it harder for yourself by facing AWAY from the basket? If Durant just faces up every single time......my god.

At the end of the day, Durant just isn't that dude. He wasn't in OKC. He still isn't in Oakland. He doesn't have that killer instinct. He scored 1 basket in the past two 4th quarters. Wtf is that for a top 2 player in the league? He passed the ball up to Klay at the end of game 4, which may be one of the worst decisions in NBA history. Durant doesn't get enough negative attention about his end of the game disappearances. It's straight up SHOCKING. If people gave Lebron so much smack about passing the ball to Udonis Haslem when he was in Miami....Durant should be getting the same treatment, if not even more so since he's a scorer and not a facilitator.

Kerr should tell him stories about when MJ was just like "FUUCK IT. GIVE ME THE DAMN BALL. I'M GOING TO WIN THIS ONE."

[ryanball]

Did he tell him about how Jordan joined the PIstons after the Bulls lost to them in 1990? Oh wait...

[31to6]

Did he tell him about how Jordan joined the PIstons after the Bulls lost to them in 1990? Oh wait...

OMG all the replies to this article are so good but this is the cherry on top.

[prime1time]

When you get out under stress your game regresses. KD has worked very hard on his passing these last 4 or 5 years but it still doesn’t come naturally to him. Going forward I thinking Boston has to Bev favored over GS next year. Boston can play physical defense, they have depth and they have play makers at every poirion. With no one for Curry to hide defensively on GS is going to have a very tough time. Play physical against Curry and Klay, let Durant work one-on-one and then do your thing on offense.

[dan-man]

Looks like the story inspired him & the Warriors...

[dan-man]

And Durant responded by running more isos. He cares more about making it look like he's carrying his team than actually doing what's best for the team. All because he can't admit that he made the weakest free-agency decision in sports history.

These hate comments will be long forgotten when GS closes out this series followed by the finals.

[MartinToVaught]

And Durant responded by running more isos. He cares more about making it look like he's carrying his team than actually doing what's best for the team. All because he can't admit that he made the weakest free-agency decision in sports history.

These hate comments will be long forgotten when GS closes out this series followed by the finals.

Is that supposed to be impressive or something? It's embarrassing that the Warriors haven't already long since closed out this series. When you add another prime MVP to your 73-win roster, it should never take more than 5 games at the most to win any series you play in. No excuses.

[GaaBaaBoo]

I wonder if Curry can beat any guard of Rockets on 1-on-1?

KD seems the only guy who can do so. Houston has two.

[ChokeFasncists]

He surely trusted Klay to be able to dribble, beat the double team and score at the end of game 4.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

He trusted his other guys...Quinn Cook comes to mind. The thing about the Warriors (and i'm a huge fan) is that i've never seen them pull off a meaningful win in the guts of a game. I've never seen them in a playoff game where it's come down to the last shot and they've come out on top. I'm talking instances like the one Thursday night where Durant hit Cook in the corner and he had a great look to put them in front. Cook hits that shot and the Warriors win that game.

[Hoopzilla]

And Durant responded by running more isos. He cares more about making it look like he's carrying his team than actually doing what's best for the team. All because he can't admit that he made the weakest free-agency decision in sports history.

These hate comments will be long forgotten when GS closes out this series followed by the finals.

Is that supposed to be impressive or something? It's embarrassing that the Warriors haven't already long since closed out this series. When you add another prime MVP to your 73-win roster, it should never take more than 5 games at the most to win any series you play in. No excuses.

I honestly think the Warriors are thinking long term and are purposely letting it go seven games. Hear me out.

They had the series in hand and all the games were clearly winnable by the Warriors. But... If they dispatched the Rockets in five games, the door is open for Lebron to go there and be the piece to put them over the top, like Durant was to the Warriors. If they go seven games (and Paul misses a game, which is just a sweetener for the Warriors' building narrative) Houston would feel they had enough to win and it makes less sense for Lebron to go there. If Lebron goes to the team that was thought to have a chance to beat the Warriors if Paul was not hurt, that looks like more cherry picking on the part of Lebron. If the Warriors ended the series in five, everyone would agree Lebron needed to go there to make it competitive and take down these unbeatable Warriors.

Watching the fourth quarter in games 4 and 5 gave me the impression the Warriors have taken the foot off the gas. I saw KD settling for threes on a guy (Tucker) he has a six inch height advantage on... I saw Curry go to the corner to block himself in when it made perfect sense to go to the top of the key where he would have had space to operate... I have seen enough stupid choices by the Warriors in the clutch in games 4 and 5 that I never saw by that team until that point, that they either forgot how to play fundamental basketball or they are purposely making these poor choices on purpose.

KD knows to use his height on a guy half a foot shorter than him. While Tucker is a very good defender, KD could have gotten by him if he wanted to. Curry knows that you don't box yourself into the corner when there are two defenders there already, making the sideline a third defender you can't escape from. These guys don't need to be told where to go on the floor or how to get themselves into the best possible spot on the floor to create, they are MVP calibre players. It is weird to say, but I give this Mike D'Antoni team credit for their defence. Giving them their credit, it still just doesn't add up to me...

[dan-man]

These hate comments will be long forgotten when GS closes out this series followed by the finals.

Is that supposed to be impressive or something? It's embarrassing that the Warriors haven't already long since closed out this series. When you add another prime MVP to your 73-win roster, it should never take more than 5 games at the most to win any series you play in. No excuses.

I honestly think the Warriors are thinking long term and are purposely letting it go seven games. Hear me out.

They had the series in hand and all the games were clearly winnable by the Warriors. But... If they dispatched the Rockets in five games, the door is open for Lebron to go there and be the piece to put them over the top, like Durant was to the Warriors. If they go seven games (and Paul misses a game, which is just a sweetener for the Warriors' building narrative) Houston would feel they had enough to win and it makes less sense for Lebron to go there. If Lebron goes to the team that was thought to have a chance to beat the Warriors if Paul was not hurt, that looks like more cherry picking on the part of Lebron. If the Warriors ended the series in five, everyone would agree Lebron needed to go there to make it competitive and take down these unbeatable Warriors.

Watching the fourth quarter in games 4 and 5 gave me the impression the Warriors have taken the foot off the gas. I saw KD settling for threes on a guy (Tucker) he has a six inch height advantage on... I saw Curry go to the corner to block himself in when it made perfect sense to go to the top of the key where he would have had space to operate... I have seen enough stupid choices by the Warriors in the clutch in games 4 and 5 that I never saw by that team until that point, that they either forgot how to play fundamental basketball or they are purposely making these poor choices on purpose.

KD knows to use his height on a guy half a foot shorter than him. While Tucker is a very good defender, KD could have gotten by him if he wanted to. Curry knows that you don't box yourself into the corner when there are two defenders there already, making the sideline a third defender you can't escape from. These guys don't need to be told where to go on the floor or how to get themselves into the best possible spot on the floor to create, they are MVP calibre players. It is weird to say, but I give this Mike D'Antoni team credit for their defence. Giving them their credit, it still just doesn't add up to me...

While interesting and logical in hind-site, realistically the Warriors have been suffering lapses against a scrappy and pissed off Rockets team. With CP3 gone, the series is as good as over.

[dan-man]

Is that supposed to be impressive or something? It's embarrassing that the Warriors haven't already long since closed out this series. When you add another prime MVP to your 73-win roster, it should never take more than 5 games at the most to win any series you play in. No excuses.

I honestly think the Warriors are thinking long term and are purposely letting it go seven games. Hear me out.

They had the series in hand and all the games were clearly winnable by the Warriors. But... If they dispatched the Rockets in five games, the door is open for Lebron to go there and be the piece to put them over the top, like Durant was to the Warriors. If they go seven games (and Paul misses a game, which is just a sweetener for the Warriors' building narrative) Houston would feel they had enough to win and it makes less sense for Lebron to go there. If Lebron goes to the team that was thought to have a chance to beat the Warriors if Paul was not hurt, that looks like more cherry picking on the part of Lebron. If the Warriors ended the series in five, everyone would agree Lebron needed to go there to make it competitive and take down these unbeatable Warriors.

Watching the fourth quarter in games 4 and 5 gave me the impression the Warriors have taken the foot off the gas. I saw KD settling for threes on a guy (Tucker) he has a six inch height advantage on... I saw Curry go to the corner to block himself in when it made perfect sense to go to the top of the key where he would have had space to operate... I have seen enough stupid choices by the Warriors in the clutch in games 4 and 5 that I never saw by that team until that point, that they either forgot how to play fundamental basketball or they are purposely making these poor choices on purpose.

KD knows to use his height on a guy half a foot shorter than him. While Tucker is a very good defender, KD could have gotten by him if he wanted to. Curry knows that you don't box yourself into the corner when there are two defenders there already, making the sideline a third defender you can't escape from. These guys don't need to be told where to go on the floor or how to get themselves into the best possible spot on the floor to create, they are MVP calibre players. It is weird to say, but I give this Mike D'Antoni team credit for their defence. Giving them their credit, it still just doesn't add up to me...

That is awesome! While interesting and logical in hind-site ( and I can appreciate a good conspiracy theory ), realistically the Warriors have been suffering lapses against a scrappy and pissed off Rockets team. With CP3 gone, the series is as good as over.