Chargers’ Staley learned a lot from shadowing Steve Kerr originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
If there’s one person who knows what it takes to be a championship-winning coach, it’s Steve Kerr.
Kerr is a nine-time NBA champion, winning five titles as a player and four as coach of the Warriors, and is one of the most decorated figures in all of sports.
In an interview with Fanduel TV’s Kay Adams, Los Angles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley shared a story of the time he was invited to shadow Kerr during Golden State’s first-round playoff series against the Sacramento Kings.
“It was an incredible experience, Kay. He was so gracious, he and Bob Myers for letting me come during the playoffs when they were playing Sacramento,” Staley said. “I was there for Game 3, the day prior, all the coaches meetings, all the gameplan meetings, the day of, just one of those unforgettable experiences.
“You’re there with three of the greatest players to play with Klay [Thompson] and [Draymond Green] and Steph [Curry] and to see an elite team, an elite culture in a really tough moment.”
Staley learned a lot about what it takes to lead a group of players through adversity and was able to draw parallels from the Warriors’ difficult series with the Kings to the Chargers’ crushing playoff loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier in the year.
“Draymond was suspended for Game 3, so I was there at a really critical juncture and I learned a lot and I went there trying to improve, and I think when you go through something like we did against Jacksonville, you want to show your team you’re working at your game just like they are, so I came back and Steve had a lot of wisdom with what they went through with Cleveland and then they had two really tough seasons where they get cleaned out by injuries,” Staley explained.
“Just building a team and dealing with everything pro coaches deal with and mentioning his mentor Gregg Popovich and what happened with them versus the Miami Heat in the Finals. You’re trying to draw some stories for these guys that will mean something and what I tried to tell our guys was ‘If you compete long enough, something like this is going to happen, but when it does, you gotta learn right away and then you gotta be able to respond.’
“So I just tried to grab some examples of what I felt like are some of the best coaches, best players, best teams going through something similar and what their response was.”
Staley would be hard-pressed to find a better coach, team and players to learn from than Kerr and his dynastic Warriors trio. If the young coach can apply what he learned this offseason to coaching in the NFL, it should bode well for Staley’s Chargers.
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