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Steve Kerr Explains Why the NBA Trade Deadline Is the 'Hardest Part of This Business'

The NBA trade deadline takes its toll on everyone.

Tyler Lauletta

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr looks on against the Indiana Pacers.
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr looks on against the Indiana Pacers. / Eakin Howard-Imagn Images
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With the NBA trade deadline just days away, players, coaches and fans all know that change is in the air.

While we don’t quite yet know for sure who will be buying, who will be selling, and which team might have a surprise up its sleeve, we can be confident that when the dust settles next Thursday, there will be some new lineups across the NBA.

On Friday, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr addressed the coming deadline, and noted how difficult it could be on players.

“It’s the hardest part of this business,” Kerr told reporters. “When you grow attached to people, and then people move on. Whether it’s a trade, free agency, coaches getting fired. You build these relationships that are really intimate, because you’ve gone through the fire together everyday, and then all of a sudden people are gone. It’s bizarre.”

Kerr went on to discuss the odd double-standard with regard to loyalty that NBA players are often asked to balance in their heads.

“I think the hardest thing for the players is that we ask them to be loyal, and to give everything they have for the group, for the team. That’s the job,” Kerr said. “But then, they might get shipped out. It’s a really hard thing to reconcile as a player. But players have to reconcile if they want to be productive and useful in their NBA careers.”

The stress of the deadline is especially relevant to the Warriors, who have made clear that they are looking to make a move if the right one presents itself.

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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.

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