Steve Kerr just couldn’t help himself.
The Warriors coach took a subtle jab at LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday after their California rivals were officially eliminated from the playoff contention.
Kerr joined 95.7 The Game’s “Steiny & Guru” and was asked about whether Jordan Poole will start in the playoffs.
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“It’s a possibility,” Kerr said on the show. “We gotta see where Steph is. I like that (Curry, Poole and Klay Thompson together), but you know when you get in the playoffs and you need to guard, name it, Paul George or LeBron, well, not this year. Sorry, I didn’t mean that, just a subtle jab.”
The Lakers were eliminated from the playoff picture with their 121-110 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night. After a disappointing season that started with early hype, the Lakers do not have a mathematical path to the play-in tournament.
And given the Warriors’ history with their SoCal neighbors, who have bullied Golden State over the past two seasons, including that heartbreaking 103-100 loss in the Western Conference play-in tournament game last year, Kerr saw the perfect opportunity to poke fun at the Lakers and ran with it.
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It will be the fourth time in LeBron’s 19-year NBA career that he misses the playoffs.
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And for Kerr and the Warriors, who have seen plenty of LeBron in the postseason dating back to his time in Cleveland, they probably won’t mind not running into him as they push for their sixth NBA Finals appearance in the last eight seasons.