During his 15-year career as a player in the NBA, Steve Kerr’s greatest performances occurred when he was enjoying the game. “I always played my best when I was having fun and I was loving the sport,” he told former Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer last Tuesday in Kissick Auditorium.

The discussion was part of the final class in VanDerveer’s winter quarter Continuing Studies course Basketball: A Masterclass, which covered the evolution and strategy of the game and featured coaches and players as guest speakers.

On Tuesday, VanDerveer and Kerr – now head coach of the Golden State Warriors – discussed his coaching style and basketball’s changing landscape.

Leading with values

After playing college basketball at the University of Arizona, Kerr was drafted into the NBA and played for six teams including the Chicago Bulls, where he was teammates with Michael Jordan. After winning the 2003 NBA Finals with the San Antonio Spurs, Kerr retired from playing and, in 2014, was hired to coach the Warriors.

While he hadn’t always planned to coach, he said, the role was a natural fit. “My dad was an educator. My mom was a teacher as well. So, it’s kind of in the blood to be a teacher, I think, and I naturally kind of gravitated toward it.”

Kerr said he’d looked up to other successful coaches, like Gregg Popovich and Phil Jackson, but it was legendary football coach Pete Carroll’s advice that stuck with him:

“To really create a culture, it has to be values-based, and those values have to be based on you – who you are, how you grew up,” Kerr said. “What are the most important things in your life? What do you stand for? And then how do you make those values come alive in practice every day?”

Kerr settled on four values that would guide his coaching style: joy, competitiveness, mindfulness, and compassion. He said he feels particularly lucky when he gets to coach players who embody those values, like star point guard Steph Curry, “the most joyful athlete I’ve ever seen in my life.”

An evolving game

Basketball has changed considerably during Kerr’s career. He credits his former Chicago Bulls head coach Phil Jackson with introducing a more holistic approach to coaching by discussing with his players the importance of meditation, mindfulness, and mental health.

“Modern coaches are sort of following Phil Jackson’s lead in terms of being more aware of how everything connects,” he said.

Kerr noted that playing styles have changed, too. Today’s players are more skilled at dribbling and shooting, for example, and more willing to take risky shots, like the one from half-court he says Curry practices every day. And after games, players will often exercise to unwind. “I’m like, ‘Why don’t you just grab a beer like we used to?’” Kerr said. “Everything is so different now, but it’s for the better [because] these guys’ careers are lasting longer than ever.”

The Warriors roster has undergone significant changes in the last year, perhaps most notably Klay Thompson’s trade to the Dallas Mavericks. When asked how he approaches difficult conversations with players, Kerr said he pairs “brutal honesty” with compassion. “If there’s a good vibe every day and you develop these relationships, and you’re also teaching the young guys what the business is all about, then you can reconcile everything.”

Courtside to classroom

Like Kerr, VanDerveer has witnessed firsthand the evolution of basketball over the course of a long and storied career. She is one of the most successful NCAA coaches of all time, with 1,216 career victories. On Jan. 21, 2024, she became the then-winningest coach in NCAA basketball history. After retiring last year, she turned to teaching.

“I wanted to share my enthusiasm for basketball because the game is a lot more than just X’s and O’s and strategy,” she said in an interview. “There’s so much history, so many behind-the-scenes stories, and many people that have influenced my life.”

Growing up outside of Boston, VanDerveer loved sports and was particularly drawn to the strategy of basketball. She coached at Ohio State University and the University of Idaho before being recruited to Stanford by then Athletics Director Andy Geiger.

“Andy had said to me, ‘We have great academics and we want great athletics too, including for our women athletes and our basketball team,’” she recalled.

She accepted the job, in part, because of Stanford’s investment in women’s sports following the implementation of Title IX, the federal law that prohibited sex-based discrimination in colleges. “I really got a sense that Stanford was committed to women’s sports,” she said. “And I think having an athletics director like Andy, who really supports you and believes in what you’re doing, is key to a successful program.”

VanDerveer’s parents, like Kerr’s, were both educators. She said teachers and coaches are indistinguishable from one another and crucial to athletes’ development. “What I’ve recognized is that having a great teacher or having a great coach allowed me to go somewhere I couldn’t go by myself,” she said. “I wanted to help my players to recognize what they were capable of and then help them get there.”

The campus ethos

In addition to teaching, VanDerveer is currently working on a book about what drives excellence, featuring Stanford affiliates.

When asked what she thought made Stanford Athletics so successful, she described an inspiring can-do ethos that permeates campus.

“This place is very encouraging. And when you’re around people that are doing something great, you’re like, ‘Well, I can do it too!’” she said.

Upon greeting students at Tuesday’s class, Kerr shared a similar sentiment. “I love being on college campuses,” he said. “I don’t get to go to them very often anymore, but I love the energy of a campus.”