Steve Kerry made his voice heard about the NBA schedule again.
Kerr, who has been a vocal advocate for a shorter season, saw his Warriors play back-to-back games on Wednesday and Thursday in Dallas and Houston, respectively.
Following the 111-107 loss to the Mavericks on Wednesday, Kerr blasted the league and its scheduling ways.
“It’s a tough back to back. That’s what makes this loss even more frustrating,” Kerr said after the game. “We got to get into Houston at 3, whatever it is, because the NBA, in its infinite wisdom, makes us play an 8:45 game. They clearly don’t care about rest or player health; it’s just ratings and all that stuff. So, I get it. Everyone’s gotta do it. The whole league’s gotta do it. It is what it is.”
In today’s NBA, it’s common to see certain players sit out on either end of a back-to-back to gain some rest.
Kerr went as far as to rest Stephen Curry in segments in the winter of 2023 to play “the long game,” keeping his shooting star fresh for the end of the season in an attempt at a back-to-back championship after beating the Celtics in six games in 2022.
He sat 11 games in December and 11 more in February before averaging 30.5 points on 46 percent shooting to carry the Warriors into the Western Conference semis that season before they fell to the Lakers in six games.
When making that decision, Kerr did feel sympathy toward Warriors fans who bought tickets to see the 10-time All-Star and two-time MVP.
“I feel terrible for fans who bought a ticket expecting to see someone play, and they don’t get to see that person play. It’s a brutal part of the business,” Kerr said then. “It’s why I’m going to continue to advocate for 72-game seasons. And I know that means less revenue but, at some point, I think there just needs to be an awareness from everybody involved in the league.
“I think about it all the time. People are spending good money to see a team, and then someone doesn’t play? That’s not something I’m ignorant to. I know that is painful. We’ve had a lot of discussions with fans over the years who have been in that situation.”
This season, Kerr and the Warriors (28-27) are hanging around in the playoff race, sitting in 10th, the final spot for a play-in position.
A ratings decrease in the NBA was a hot topic of discussion in the early months of the season, and on Wednesday, the Sports Business Journal reported that ratings are down 5 percent from last season.
But the report indicated things are looking up after the trade deadline, especially following the three-team blockbuster trade that sent Anthony Davis to Dallas and Luka Doncic to the Lakers to pair up with LeBron James.
In Doncic’s debut on a Monday night, ESPN drew in an average 2.01 million viewers, which was a 42 percent increase from last year’s average for the network, the Worldwide Leader said.
