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Steve Kerr Explains Rejecting 'The Last Dance'-Style Doc for Warriors in 2019
May 8, 2020
As the sports world obsesses over The Last Dance documentary about the end of the Chicago Bulls' dynasty, it has been revealed the 2018-19 Golden State Warriors could have been the subject of a similar project.
Speaking to The Athletic's Sam Amick, head coach Steve Kerr explained why the situation with the Warriors didn't lend itself to allowing cameras behind the scenes like the 1997-98 Bulls did:
"You think about our situation with the Warriors, and we didn't have a final season. We're trying to keep this thing going. A lot of our players are still here, and we're trying to rev it back up, so there was no sense of finality. If anything, we're trying to avoid that.
"So having everybody in, inviting the world in and inviting cameras in and saying, ‘Hey, we want to capture the final days of this run,' it's like you're basically telling your players that you believe this is ending, and also you're violating a principle of the sanctity of the locker room. So it never occurred to me, nor does it now, to do anything of the sort for our team."
NBA Entertainment videographer Andy Thompson told Amick and Joe Vardon on the Tampering podcast that the Warriors coach was the main reason for the idea being shut down.
According to Kerr, one of the key differences between the two teams is the Bulls knew going into the 1997-98 season it was the end and the Warriors didn't have that mindset:
“Phil (Jackson) felt very strongly as a coach about the sanctity of the locker room. Very few people were allowed into the locker room on game nights, and that's one of the reasons it was sort of shocking when we heard about this idea and that it was going to happen.
“So along with everybody else, I was very surprised that Phil OK'd it, but I think it was very, very unique under the circumstances. And Phil took that into account, that because that (season) was going to be it, and it was preordained that that was ‘The Last Dance,' it sort of opened up the door literally and figuratively for that kind of project. But those circumstances are so unique.”
Kerr did note that early in the 2018-19 season he told Warriors players "the truth was we were probably never going to have that conglomeration of talent together again, nor would any of them at any point in their respective careers."
That Golden State team would have had plenty of material to fill out a compelling documentary, including the near-constant discussion about Kevin Durant's future with the organization.
There was also the dynamic between Durant and Draymond Green, including the much-discussed argument during and after an early-season game against the Los Angeles Clippers, which resulted in Green being suspended by Golden State for one game without pay because of conduct detrimental to the team.
The Warriors' dynasty ended abruptly after they lost the 2019 NBA Finals to the Toronto Raptors and Durant signed with the Brooklyn Nets as a free agent. This season, a raft of injuries left the team with the worst record in the NBA at 15-50 before games were paused because of the coronavirus pandemic.