SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr got in trouble after his emotional ejection in the fourth quarter of Monday night’s loss to the LA Clippers — but it wasn’t with the NBA. It was with the person who has followed his basketball career closer than anyone else: His mom, Ann.
Kerr, who didn’t speak to reporters after Monday’s game, didn’t want to get into specifics about the sequence of plays that led to an outburst that produced two quick technical fouls, but he did say his mom, who lives in the Los Angeles area, was not happy with the fireworks he produced while she watched the game from her seat inside the Intuit Dome.
“I was upset about a couple calls,” Kerr said before Wednesday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks, noting there was a reason assistant coach Terry Stotts talked to the media in his place. “But all good other than my mom being terribly disappointed in me.
“She was at the game; she looked horrified afterwards. She asked me if I was going to hit the referee. I said, ‘Mom, I’ve never hit anybody in my life.’ She said, ‘It looked like you were going to hit him. Why were all those men holding you back?’ I go, ‘That’s all part of the theatrics.’ She didn’t understand. I was a little alarmed that she thought I was actually going to hit somebody. That scared me.”
Kerr was smiling and chuckled as he relayed the story. The initial eruption started after Stephen Curry wasn’t given a continuation after being fouled with 8:44 left in regulation, and it boiled over when Clippers big man John Collins wasn’t called for goaltending after blocking a Gary Payton II shot at the rim. It was a call that crew chief Brian Forte later admitted the crew got wrong, according to a pool report.
As Kerr looked back on the blowup, he said his mom felt bad she couldn’t stop him before he was tossed.
Snoop Dogg announcing Steve Kerr’s ejection is hilarious. 😂 pic.twitter.com/bL9AP8X3R5
— NBA on NBC and Peacock (@NBAonNBC) January 6, 2026
“She said she was just sorry that she couldn’t make it down on the floor to calm me down,” Kerr said. “When she said that, I immediately remembered Stephon Marbury’s mom when he got injured and literally ran across the court and was crying because her baby had been injured. Fortunately, he wasn’t injured too badly, but that was a great scene. I am glad my mom didn’t have access to the floor. That would have been rather embarrassing.”
Kerr’s ejection continued to get some laughs Wednesday, especially from fellow longtime coach and former player Doc Rivers. The Bucks coach couldn’t resist taking a joking jab at Kerr when the topic came up.
“Is he coaching tonight?” Rivers asked, sarcastically.
When told that Kerr said his mom was upset at her son, Rivers couldn’t resist getting in another dig.
“I was upset at him,” Rivers said with his own chuckle. “I thought he acted like a fool. And I’m done with that from Steve.”
After the joking concluded, Rivers conceded that his mom had gotten upset with him for things he’d said and done on the floor, too.
“My mom was a church-going lady,” Rivers said. “And I wasn’t using the right language one game, and she called and let me have it. So, it’s interesting. You say ‘I’m sorry,’ but you do know the next day you’re going to do it again, so it’s a tough one.”
In the midst of Kerr’s ejection, guest game analyst Snoop Dogg, who was working for Peacock on Monday night, provided some commentary about the exchange that quickly went viral. Kerr had to smile when asked whether he had seen the clip.
“I had like five people send it to me immediately,” Kerr said. “That was rather amusing.”