Steve Kerr Says He's Not Ready to Return for 2017 NBA Finals vs. Cavaliers

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As the Golden State Warriors approach Game 1 of the 2017 NBA Finals on Thursday, they'll continue to be without head coach Steve Kerr.

Kerr told reporters Monday he doesn't feel healthy enough to return to the bench, according to ESPN.com's Chris Haynes. Kerr added that his status is "still up in the air," per Haynes.

Kerr hasn't coached the Warriors since Game 2 of their first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers. After he was initially ruled out, he said he wouldn't rush a return to the sidelines. 

"I will say this," Kerr said, per the San Francisco Chronicle's Scott Ostler. "This is not going to be a case where I'm coaching one night and not coaching the next. I'm not going to do that to our team, our staff. We're hoping that over the next week or two, whatever it is, that I can sort of make a definitive realization, or deduction, or just feel it, that I'm going to do this or I'm not."

In Kerr's absence, assistant Mike Brown has been elevated to interim head coach, and the Warriors have hardly missed a beat, sweeping their way to the Finals.

"We want to do that for him when we're out there playing," Stephen Curry said of the team's drive to win for Kerr, according to the Mercury News' Daniel Mano. "It's been huge and obviously it changes the identity of the Warriors and bring us a championship and give him another one."

Kerr, 51, underwent back surgery in the summer of 2015, and he proceeded to miss the Warriors' first 43 games of the 2015-16 season. 

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Since then, he's experienced complications—including a spinal fluid leak that gives him excruciating symptoms such as migraines and nausea, according to ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne. 

Pressing on without Kerr may be dispiriting, but the Warriors have proved to this point they're fully capable of thriving under Brown's guidance.