Steve Kerr has been tossed from plenty of games in his long NBA life, but Monday night’s ejection against the LA Clippers hit a little differently. This time, the fallout did not come from the league office or the Warriors front office. It came from his mom. Yes, Steve Kerr is 60 years old, a four-time championship coach, and a California basketball icon. He is also, very much, Ann Kerr’s son. And Ann Kerr was not impressed.
According to the NY Times, Kerr’s emotional blowup came in the fourth quarter of a loss at Intuit Dome after a string of calls that pushed him over the edge. First, Stephen Curry did not get continuation after being fouled with 8:44 left. Then Clippers big man John Collins blocked a Gary Payton II shot that should have been called goaltending. Crew chief Brian Forte later admitted the NBA officials got that one wrong. Kerr erupted, picked up two quick technical fouls, and was ejected. The NBA drama was one thing. The mom reaction was another. “But all good other than my mom being terribly disappointed in me,” Kerr said before Wednesday’s win over the Bucks.
Ann Kerr, who lives in the Los Angeles area, was in the building and had a front-row view of her son losing his cool. Kerr, smiling and chuckling as he told the story, said her reaction was immediate and intense.
“She was at the game, she looked horrified afterwards,” he said. “She asked me if I was going to hit the referee. I said, ‘Mom, I’ve never hit anybody in my life.’ She said, ‘It looked like you were going to hit him. Why were all those men holding you back?’ I go ‘That’s all part of the theatrics.’ She didn’t understand.”
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That might be the most relatable moment of the entire saga. To basketball lifers, Kerr’s outburst was classic coach theatrics. To a 91-year-old mother, it looked like her son was about to throw hands on national television. Kerr admitted the moment actually rattled him a bit. “I was a little alarmed that she thought I was actually going to hit somebody, that scared me,” he said. It did not stop there. Ann Kerr even blamed herself for not intervening sooner. “She said she was just sorry that she couldn’t make it down on the floor to calm me down,” Kerr said.
That line unlocked a memory for Kerr, who recalled Stephon Marbury’s mom once running onto the court when her son was hurt. “I am glad my mom didn’t have access to the floor,” Kerr joked. “That would have been rather embarrassing.”
The whole episode became a lighthearted talking point around the Warriors, especially given recent events involving Draymond Green, who has had his own run-ins with officials and ejections. When asked about moms being upset, Green pulled out his phone and started reading texts from his own mother, Mary. “When you are focused, no one can beat us,” Green read. “She texted me today.” He kept scrolling. “She texted me Monday, ‘Remember what you love and stop abusing it.’”
Green admitted that after his most recent ejection, his mom texted him simply, “What happened?” He never replied. “Every game she’s on me about not getting thrown out of game and being locked in and focused,” Green said. “So I get it. I’m happy Mrs. Kerr got at Steve, that’s great.” Stephen Curry was right there with him. Curry said Ann Kerr holding her son accountable was exactly what moms are supposed to do. “That’s a good mother, son relationship,” Curry said. “She’s watching every game and locked in and cares as much as he does to call him out on it too. But we needed that fire so Mrs. Kerr, we forgive him for sure.”
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Curry also confessed that his own mom, Sonya, has let him hear it over the years, including after a 2018 playoff game when he screamed “This is my f***ing house” directly into a camera. “It was no plausible deniability there,” Curry admitted. Even Bucks coach Doc Rivers jumped in, sharing that his church-going mom once called him out for his language during a game. “You do know the next day you’re going to do it again,” Rivers said, summing up the eternal cycle of NBA passion and maternal disappointment.
To top it all off, Kerr’s ejection even came with a viral side plot. Guest analyst and California rapper Snoop Dogg, working for Peacock, had commentary on the exchange that blew up online and, naturally, made its way back to Kerr. “I had like five people send it to me immediately,” Kerr said. “That was rather amusing.”
In the end, the story was not really about a missed goaltend or a technical foul in California. It was about something much bigger and much more universal. No matter how many titles you win or games you coach, if your mom is in the stands, you are still going to hear about it afterward. And judging by the smiles from Steve Kerr, Curry, and Green, that might be the most grounding force in the NBA.
