Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Phoenix Suns, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Phoenix.Rick Scuteri/AP
By Gabe Fernandez, Sports Reporter May 9, 2026 (sfgate.com)
The Warriors’ offseason of uncertainty has gotten a whole lot more certain with the return of the team’s head coach, Steve Kerr.
The 60-year-old former NBA player and executive will extend his Golden State tenure for a 13th and 14th year, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, who also said that the two-year deal will keep Kerr as the highest paid coach in the NBA annually. He made $17.5 million last season.
It was far from a guarantee that Kerr would come back and coach the Dubs. While he said he wouldn’t want to abandon his longtime players in Steph Curry and Draymond Green — especially with Curry’s return being a given — a few reports in the aftermath of Golden State’s play-in elimination made it more a matter of if he’d be at Chase Center for another year, rather than when.
First came what sure looked like an emotional goodbye to Curry and Green in the final moments of the loss to the Suns last month. Green himself even said he believed this would be the end of Kerr’s time with the Warriors on his season-end podcast. NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole added to that sentiment with a report that Kerr likely would be “comfortably jobless” soon. Then there were the multiple reports that Warriors brass wasn’t too keen on the coach’s political outspokenness, as well as reported plans of a major overhaul in case of Kerr’s departure.
Kerr also didn’t do much to dispel the rumors between the sudden New Yorker profile and hanging around ESPN senior writer, and profiler extraordinaire, Wright Thompson toward the end of the season. Speaking of ESPN, the network also reportedly tried to get him to come back to the broadcast side of things.
However, momentum started to shift at the start of May, with Kerr’s return seemingly always possible. Meetings with Dubs upper management went well, and Kerr still had visions for the future of the Warriors. Given the news Saturday, it’s safe to say the meetings went better than Klay Thompson’s offseason meetings nearly two years ago.
There’s still a lot for Golden State to figure out this offseason as its greatest player in franchise history prepares for another late-career season, but at least the organization can check one thing off its long list.
More Warriors
— The Draymond Green-Austin Rivers beef is getting out of control
— Steve Kerr will return after weeks of uncertainty
— Warriors reportedly grew tired of Kerr’s political activism
— Brutal broadcast moment in Warriors-Suns adds to Lacob’s bad day
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May 9, 2026
Sports Reporter
Gabe Fernandez is an award-winning sports reporter at SFGATE and has been yelling about sports online since he first had an internet connection. A Maryland native, Gabe graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He’s covered sports — focusing on football, basketball and sports history — for Sporting News, Deadspin and CBS Sports. You can reach him at gabe.fernandez@sfgate.com.
