"How did we win?": Steve Kerr sinks to his seat as Warriors go hysterical after finally winning coach's challenge
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr could not believe that referees overturned their initial ruling on a Dario Saric foul after challenging it. His reaction to the announcement of the officiating error drew laughs from his coaching staff and eventually NBA fans.
Steve Kerr "fainted", that is, he acted like he passed out after he won a coaching challenge during the third quarter of the Golden State Warriors' NBA In-Season Tournament game against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night at the Chase Center in San Francisco.
The play in question happened at the 3:32 mark of the third quarter when Dario Saric poked the ball away from Zach Collins off a Tre Jones pass. The referees thought that Saric bumped Collins off while picking the pass and called a foul on him.
Kerr, who thought he saw the play otherwise, used his coach's challenge on it but was heard telling one referee that he was already conceding to the fact that the foul call would stick. He said:
"I know I'm gonna lose, but I'm going to challenge it anyway."
Before the game, Kerr had a somehow long history of blowing his challenge option this season, as almost all his challenges he made were used on calls that turned out to be correct ones.
However, with the Warriors' NBA In-Season Tournament campaign on the line, Kerr took the risk of using it on Saric's foul. After the review, though, the referees deemed that Saric had cleanly poked the ball away off the Jones pass, and the foul was overturned, much to the surprise of Kerr.
Kerr jokingly fainted and said:
"What happened? How did we win? We never win."
Steve Kerr shocked by coach's challenge win
For the first time in a long while, Steve Kerr finally won a coach's challenge. At least until the post-game press conference for the San Antonio Spurs-Golden State Warriors game, he was in disbelief that he proved that the referees had made a wrong call initially.
Steve Kerr said:
"I was in shock. I wasn't used to winning challenges. Even when they look obvious, refs are judge and jury. It's natural human emotion to not want to admit if you're wrong, so I was in shock when we actually won one."
Following the successful challenge, Saric was credited with a steal, his second for the game, and Jones was given a turnover, his only one in the game but one of 19 total Spurs errors.
The Warriors were even worse in handling the ball, with 24 total turnovers, but they still ended up victorious, 118-112.