Longtime Warriors coach Steve Kerr has been against the NBA’s use of instant replay for quite some time.
Golden State’s recent dramatics against the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks only supported his stern stance against the review feature.
In talking to 95.7 The Game’s “Willard and Dibs” on Tuesday, Kerr explained his anti-replay sentiment.
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“There are so many unintended consequences of replay,” Kerr told Mark Willard and Dan Dibley. “But one consequence that we clearly have felt over the years is just these stoppages in play that are terrible for everybody. The Lakers game on Sunday was just insane. Now, that was more because of the shot clock, but what set into that was the multiple challenges before that.”
“If I were in charge of everything, which I’m not, I would eliminate all replays other than buzzer-beaters, and that’s it.”
On Saturday at Crypto.com Arena against the Lakers, the Warriors dealt with a 23-minute delay in play due to a clock malfunction and the officials’ multiple trips to the replay monitor.
Golden State Warriors
And when hosting the Knicks at Chase Center on Monday, Kerr noted that the Warriors didn’t have a good enough angle to challenge a foul call incorrectly assessed to Warriors rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis, even with a designated monitor on Golden State's bench.
“We have a monitor behind the bench, and we have two coaches, Seth Cooper and Jacob Rubin, who are monitoring the monitor,” Kerr said. “So, they look at the replay and give me the thumbs up or down. The problem is the monitor doesn’t always have a good view. Sometimes, they’ll give me the thumbs down because they don’t have a good view.”
Kerr isn’t a fan of instant replay because he believes it berths a spiral of unnecessary issues that ruin the game’s flow.
Above all, the four-time NBA-champion coach wants anyone engaging with games to have the best experience possible, whether as fans, coaches or players.
“You just get into these situations where it’s like all these unintended consequences,” Kerr added. “You take the matter out of a good official’s hands who can ref based on what’s the right outcome. And then all of a sudden, the crowd is just sitting there, the momentum is gone from the game and the viewing experience is bad.”
Kerr prefers referees calling the game as they see it, with buzzer-beaters being the only exception worthy of video review.