Steve Kerr passes Al Attles for most wins in Warriors franchise history

SAN FRANCISCO — The greatest coach in the history of the Warriors organizations now has the win total to match.

With Golden State’s 97-94 victory over the New York Knicks on Saturday at Chase Center, Steve Kerr passed the late Al Attles for first all-time in franchise history with 558 regular-season wins.

“I’m incredibly lucky to be part of this organization and part of this city,” Kerr said postgame. “Very humbled by the honor because of Al’s greatness and what he means to the franchise.”

Kerr thanked the fans and players like Steph Curry and Draymond Green in a brief on-court speech after the win. A tribute video featuring Erik Spoelstra, Phil Jackson and former Warriors assistant coaches congratulating him flashed on the jumbotron. The Attles family also presented him with the game ball in Golden State’s locker room.

“More than anything, it’s just a sign of organizational stability and success,” Kerr said before the win.

“My general managers, both Bob (Myers) and Mike (Dunleavy) having great faith in me, and Joe (Lacob) as well when things haven’t gone well. I think in a lot of other franchises, I could’ve been fired maybe after we had the worst record in the league or didn’t make the playoffs the next year. That’s how a lot of franchises operate. To me, the record is really an organizational one.”

Always conscientious and often self-deprecating, Kerr said he didn’t have a clue what he was doing when he first started out with the Warriors. He’d never coached before when the Warriors hired him a decade ago out of the broadcast booth to replace Mark Jackson.

He’d told his mentor, Phil Jackson, that he was coming to the Knicks before flipping to the Warriors, who presented a better, younger core of talent around Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.

Even he admits that had he gone through with the Knicks opportunity, he would’ve been fired within a couple years. Instead, he has won four championships with the Warriors and set the cultural foundation for one of the most iconic dynasties in league history.

Kerr implemented a laid-back, player-friendly environment off the court, taking the team dinners he learned under Gregg Popovich and bringing them to Golden State. On it, he brought elements of the triangle offense he played with Michael Jordan’s Bulls and skyrocketed the Warriors to perennially the top passing team in the NBA.

“The offense he brought to this organization, the family atmosphere he brought to this organization — that was Steve,” Green said. “You see after a game, it’s 10 kids running around the court. You come into a given practice, my kids are running around, someone else’s kids are running around, that’s Steve. In this life we live, we’re gone a lot. When you have a coach like that who understands those things, it just makes work that much better. You can bring your kid to work knowing that you missed things. That helps. Bringing your family on the plane. You talk to some teams around (the league), they ain’t doing that. That’s insane. He brought that culture to this team. All of that is part of the success you see.”

Kerr, the all-time leading 3-point shooter by percentage as a player, brought an offensive-mind to the bench. But in recent years, with more experience, he’s become a much more balanced coach, longtime assistant Ron Adams said.

Under Kerr, the Warriors have won championships in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022. He was the NBA Coach of the Year in 2016, when Golden State won a record 73 games. And this past summer, he and Curry led Team USA to gold at the Paris Olympics.

And as long as Curry’s still on the team, Kerr isn’t going anywhere. And like every Curry 3, every Warriors win will be a new franchise record for the head coach.

“He changed everything. He has been as important as anybody with what this organization has become,” Green said.