Steve Kerr and the Quest for 'A Damn Gold Medal'

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The USA Basketball Olympic men’s team is 3-0, with an average margin of victory of nearly 22 points heading into its quarterfinal game against Brazil today.

But despite the team’s success, despite the fact many of the biggest names in the sport seem to have checked their egos in pursuit of the larger goal, Coach Steve Kerr has been widely criticized by fans, reporters and players alike for his minutes distribution.

In the team’s first game, Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum didn’t get off the bench in a 26-point victory over Serbia. In the second, former MVP Joel Embiid didn’t play.

“Warriors coach Steve Kerr is enraging Team USA fans with his lineups,” an SF Gate headline read.

“You don’t not play Jayson Tatum,” said Draymond Green, who plays for Kerr with the Golden State Warriors. “That man just won an NBA championship.”

The criticism Kerr — a four-time NBA champion coach — has received despite seemingly pressing all of the right buttons thus far has three important reminders for anyone in a leadership position:

1. Someone will always be unhappy

We often think that wins and other achievements should be enough to silence any skeptics or quell any doubts. But even with success can come second-guessing from outsiders and suggestions about how we could be performing even better.  

As leaders, we can’t get caught up in this din of public opinion. Being questioned and misunderstood is simply inevitable at times. But as the outside noise gets louder, we’d be wise to form a tight circle of trusted voices and confidants whose input we actually value.

Knowing whose opinion to give weight to is an underrated leadership skill. 

2. More talent, more scrutiny

We often convince ourselves that we just need better players or more skilled employees to solve our problems. But while talent can obviously alleviate certain issues, it often has unintended consequences of its own, including greater scrutiny around our team and our own decision making.   

It’s important to remember that in coaching and leadership, challenges in some capacity will always be present. They just take on different forms.

How we choose to respond to these is frequently what determines our team’s end result.

3. Regardless of the circumstances, we must do what we feel is best

Kerr knew that sitting Tatum in the opening game was controversial and acknowledged he “felt like an idiot” after. He was aware that not playing Embiid would also raise eyebrows.

But as leaders, our job isn’t to win short-term popularity contests and to people-please. It’s to implore the strategies most likely to produce the desired result.

That means we will be criticized at points, we may look foolish, and we might be a bit unpopular for stretches.

If our intentions are good, however, and our choices are well conceived and backed up by data, then we should have confidence and conviction to continue moving forward. 

“I don’t read social media. I would hope our guys aren’t paying too much attention to that. That’s a regular season thing where the soap opera can carry the ratings,” Kerr said.

“Here, it’s just win a damn gold medal.”

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