The USA Men’s basketball team thrashed the French team yesterday in the gold medal game under the leadership of Head Coach Steve Kerr. On the other hand, the stacked team was led by LeBron James on the hardwood. After the brilliant campaign in Paris, the GSW head coach couldn’t have been happier for the opportunity to coach some of the all-time greats of the game, including King James.
Over the years, Coach Kerr and LeBron have been part of rival teams in the NBA. In the last decade, they faced off against one another in the NBA Finals four times in a row. For a refreshing change this year, Kerr was handed the responsibility to have LeBron on his team for the first time. And he couldn’t be more grateful.
During a conversation with reporters after the game, the veteran coach said, “What a blessing to coach him finally after all these years of coaching against him and trying to figure out how to beat him. To watch him up close, I’ve said this, in these past few weeks, just to see his approach, to see his professionalism, how coachable he is.”
Steve Kerr with high praise for LeBron:
“What a blessing to coach him finally after all these years —- then of course just how gifted he is at everything, every part of the game he seems to have mastered… I’m a LeBron fan for life”
pic.twitter.com/5DWUsqPUCs— ²³𝙻𝚎𝙱𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚜🏀☄️🌎💞 (@BronGotGame) August 11, 2024
Apart from feeling fortunate to have coached one of the greatest players of all time, coach Kerr also marveled at how amazing LBJ is as a player. He added, “Then of course, just how gifted he is at everything, every part of the game he seems to have mastered. I’m thrilled to have been able to coach him these last six weeks. I’m a LeBron fan for life.”
Even in this short stretch of time, this isn’t the first time when coach Kerr has heaped praise on the Lakers star. Towards the end of the exhibition run of Team USA, he told ESPN that he is blown away by the way LeBron carries the responsibility of being the leader of the team. Kerr said that he leads by example in front of his teammates, which makes his presence even more special.
“The guy is incredible, and I mean I’ve known that forever, but to see it up close is pretty special.”
But LeBron wasn’t the only elite superstar player on that team. Stephen Curry and coach Kerr have had quite a run in the NBA in the last decade. Kevin Durant is another superstar Kerr has had the pleasure to coach in the NBA.
Steph and LeBron rallied together in the last two games on this stretch, with the former taking on the volume scoring responsibilities. Even though they faced strong teams such as Serbia and France in the knockout stages, the duo of Chef and the King was able to decimate their opponents to bring home the gold medal.