Warriors' Steve Kerr Thought Colin Kaepernick Would 'Eventually' Be Seen as Hero

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said on Tuesday that he always believed former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick would ultimately be seen as an important figure. 

"My sense a few years ago is that Kaepernick would eventually be viewed as a hero," he told Mark Medina of USA Today. 

In 2016, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback began kneeling during the playing of the national anthem before NFL games as a protest against racial discrimination and police brutality. That became a hugely divisive topic around the United States, with his critics—including Donald Trump—claiming that Kaepernick was disrespecting the flag and the military. 

The irony was that Kaepernick—who initially sat during the national anthem—began kneeling after consulting with former NFL player and Green Beret Nate Boyer, who felt it was a more respectful gesture than sitting.

"Soldiers often take a knee in front of a fallen brother's grave to pay respects," Boyer told NPR in 2018. "So I thought, if anything, besides standing, that was the most respectful. But, of course, that's just my opinion."

The conversation regarding Kaepernick's protest has been reinvigorated in recent weeks, with protests occuring around the United States and the world in support of the black community's fight against racial discrimination and police brutality after the death of George Floyd on May 25 while in Minneapolis police custody. 

Kerr was supportive of Kaepernick's protest and the other NFL players who joined him by taking a knee during the playing of the anthem at the time, as he said in October 2016 (h/t NBC Sports Bay Area):

"That's what drives me crazy about the uproar over the NFL players who have knelt in a fight for social justice. So many of them have given so much to their communities—given not just money but time. I read a lot about Malcolm Jenkins in Philadelphia and what he's done in his community. And Chris Long. And people like Colin Kaepernick who have given $1 million to charity.

"I'm so proud of so many athletes who are out there in their communities, knowing the power they have and the financial resources they have to make a change. That's patriotism to me. The anthem is just kind of a symbol for that."

The support that Kerr and Warriors superstar Steph Curry expressed for Kaepernick contradicted directly with Trump's vocal critiques of any players who knelt, with the two sides exchanging public barbs. That played a major factor in Trump withdrawing the team's invitation to visit the White House after their title in the 2016-17 season; Curry said he did not want to go anyway.

"Michelle Obama said it best," Draymond Green said in 2017 after the White House invitation was revoked. "She said it best. They go low. We go high. He beat us to the punch. Happy the game is over."