During the Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, Steve Kerr decided to have a little fun with TNT sideline reporter, and former colleague, David Aldridge.
Trailing the series 3-2 to the Houston Rockets, and leading 84-77 heading into the fourth quarter, Aldridge mentioned that Golden State didn’t have much experience in elimination games when he interviewed Kerr between quarters.
“Your team has all kinds of championship experience Steve, but what it doesn’t have is experience facing elimination. What does it count on in the fourth quarter to get through?” Aldridge asked.
“We have seen elimination, we have,” Kerr said with a wry smile. “Saw it in (Oklahoma City). Do your homework David, c’mon.”
While the comment was made in good fun, Kerr told Tolbert & Lund on Thursday evening that he later felt bad and apologized to Aldridge.
“I did, I did apologize,” Kerr said. “DA and I are really close. We worked together at TNT for many years and in fact when I became the Warriors coach, I gave him the story and he was the one who announced I took the job and all that. So we’ve been close.”
Kerr said he apologized in large part because Aldridge is one of the hardest workers in the business, and Kerr didn’t want anybody to misinterpret his joke.
“You know with those interviews I try to have fun with them,” Kerr continued. “I try to mix it up a little bit because they are so boring if you just say ‘Well we’ve got to box out, and do this, whatever.’ So I try to have a little fun with it and I was just messing with him, but the irony is that David is the guy who gets his homework done before everybody else. So I felt bad because of course David does his homework and so I called him and I apologized, and he was of course great. He said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’
“You know it’s a little dangerous to have the microphone on coaches and players during the middle of a heated playoff game.”
Ironically, Kerr was even more curt in his next interview with Aldridge.
“The very next game was Game 7 when I was incredibly short with him,” Kerr said. “He said, ‘What did you think?’ and I said, ‘That was the worst quarter of basketball we’ve ever played,’ then I just turned around and took off.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Kerr on Aldridge, start from 21:25.