SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr cut his right hand during Wednesday night’s 104-90 win over the Chicago Bulls after breaking a clipboard in frustration. Kerr made light of the situation after the game, as he wore a bandaid on his hand while speaking to reporters at the podium.
“It’s a mere flesh wound,” Kerr said. “I broke a clipboard. It’s one of two. I’m allotted two [broken clipboards] a year. This was number one. It always cuts [my hand] in the same place. This was a little deeper one. I was a little more upset.”
This is not the first time Kerr has broken a clipboard over the years, but this particular incident came early in the fourth quarter as the Warriors tried to close out the game.
“We just had a stretch there where we were very careless,” Kerr said. “Particularly in transition defense. And we let them sneak behind us. Those are cardinal sins. We’re 3-15 coming into the game, so every play matters, every possession matters and you got to fight for everything and I thought our guys did a great job of that down the stretch and deserved to feel good about the game and I’m really happy for them.”
Kerr’s intensity was appreciated by his players in the huddle.
“I love it,” Warriors rookie Eric Paschall said. “A coach like that cares. He wants to win. And coach Kerr as a player, he’s been through it all. He’s a winner himself so he wants to win. He wants to change everything so I feel like we responded correctly tonight and played well together … you respond to that. Having a coach that cares so much about his team and how we’re playing, that means a lot for players just because he cares.”
Kerr’s clipboard break was a hot topic of conversation in the Warriors locker room.
“He f—ed his hand up pretty bad. There was blood all over his pants. And then he got a new clipboard. There was blood all over that clipboard, too. He got a rise out of the team, though, we turned the game back around.”
Warriors big man Omari Spellman said he didn’t even see Kerr snap the clipboard, but he saw the aftermath.
“I saw him leaking [blood],” Spellman said. “I was like, ‘Yo, why is he bleeding?’ He was like animated but he just kept going like blood on the clipboard. I’m like, ‘we’re in the heat of the moment, I ain’t going to talk about it.’ But I was completely confused.”
The Warriors closed out the Bulls to earn just their fourth win of the season. Green believes Kerr’s outburst gave the group a lift.
“I think we needed it,” Green said. “We always talk about just not get comfortable with losing. We’ve seen this movie a couple times where we’re playing well, we get the lead, and then we lose it and lose the game so I think that came at a great time for us and you got to give our guys credit. Everybody responded, which was important.”
Kerr believes his hand will be fine heading into the Warriors five game trip that starts in Miami on Friday.
“I’m day to day at this point,” Kerr said with a smile. “No stitches yet, but we’ll see [Thursday]. There was blood on the clipboard. Maybe that should be the headline for your story.”