NBA Coaches Continue Leading Conversations on Society’s Uncomfortable Issues

Less than a week had gone by since the Golden State Warriors lost Game 7 of the Finals and head coach Steve Kerr was going all-in on police shootings and the need for sensible gun control. 

After talking at length about the playoffs, Game 7 itself and everything that flowed forth in its wake, Kerr pivoted in a podcast interview to a topic that is both painful and personal for him. In January 1984, his own father, Malcolm, then the president of the American University of Beirut, was assassinated on campus by two gunmen.

And after yet another rash of high-profile, police-involved shootings this past summer, Kerr used whatever platform offered to him to make his voice heard. “The rest of the world thinks we’re insane,” he told Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News. “We are insane.”

Yet again, Kerr used the platform of a podcast, this time with CSN Bay Area’s Monte Poole on Friday, to speak his mind on yet another societal issue, specifically the use of medicinal marijuana in treating chronic pain. Kerr admitted he did try medicinal pot last year when he was recovering from complications related to his offseason back surgery.

Rather than more powerful narcotics like Vicodin or Percocet, Kerr did the research and opted for cannabis. And in admitting his own actions, he was hoping to destigmatize its use and start a conversation about chronic pain, and why sports leagues permit powerful opioids for treatment yet ban less addictive and harmful alternatives. 

Steve Kerr’s complete comments tonight regarding his use of medicinal marijuana and how leagues should approach the issue of pain relief. pic.twitter.com/8ScmB3zZGO

— Erik Malinowski (@erikmal) December 4, 2016

“I was a little surprised about the fact that it became kind of a big deal,” Kerr said before Saturday night’s drubbing of the Phoenix Suns. “Because of the way the world works, what is a very serious conversation about pain relief turns into the headline: ‘Kerr Smokes Pot.’ So I guess that’s the world we live in.”

Anyone who knows Kerr knows this is entirely within his character, to …

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