Austin Reaves says that Steve Kerr is still living up to the Golden State Warriors’ painful 2023 postseason exit against the Los Angeles Lakers.
That’s what he hilariously confirmed in a recent sit-down interview with Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times when he was asked about what it’s like working now with Kerr around Team USA for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
“Steve, basically, the first conversation we had was him being like, ‘You know, I’m still not really over what you and y’all did to us this postseason. But much rather be coaching you than coaching against you.'”
The Los Angeles’ second-round war against Golden State served as one of the major platforms for Reaves to rise towards stardom from last season. With his gutsy and tricky all-around play, the fan-favorite helped the Lakers take down the Warriors’ title defense by averaging 14.3 points, 4.2 boards, and 3.7 assists for six grueling matches.
While he and the Lakers were eliminated by the eventual champions in the Denver Nuggets at the Conference Finals, the undrafted cager in Reaves can only be thankful that his brilliance over Kerr and Golden State contributed to his seizing of a four-year, $56MM contract from the Los Angeles franchise this offseason.
Under Kerr’s guidance now, Reaves still continues to shine in international basketball’s biggest stage upon helping the American squad to reach this year’s World Cup quarterfinals in Manila by averaging 10.8 points, 3 assists, 2.2 boards, and 1.8 steals for five Group Phase matches.
