Steve Kerr was named USA basketball’s next head coach Monday. Turns out there’s a possibility he could have represented the county in an entirely different capacity a few years ago – as a diplomat with North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un.
The Athletic’s Alex Schiffer published a story Monday detailing an anecdote from Anna Fitfield’s book titled “The Great Successor” – involving economist and Barack Obama adviser Marcus Noland. According to the reports, Obama hosted Noland in the Oval Office in 2012 and he made a unique pitch: Ask Kerr to serve as a liaison for Kim by perhaps playing H-O-R-S-E or one-on-one basketball.
Noland suggested that Kerr was uniquely positioned to connect with North Korea’s supreme leader, as Kim was a fan of the obsessed with the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls. Kerr, of course, won three straight titles with MJ and the Bulls from 1996-98. At the time of Nolan’s pitch to Obama, Kerr was a TNT commentator.
Schiffer recently relayed the story to Kerr when the Warriors were in New York, and the Warriors coach said he never heard of the proposition. He also said he probably wouldn’t have accepted.
“No. No way …” Kerr told Schiffer. “Unless President Obama himself asked me to do it. If he had asked me to do it, I would have done it.”
Kim ended up hosting another Bulls-related player, as Dennis Rodman made three trips to Pyongyang beginning in 2013.
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It’s odd to imagine Kerr with some foreign dignitaries in a gym in Pyongyang shooting hoops. Say he sinks all his buckets and Kim gets mad? What then? There’s homecourt advantage and there’s North Korean homecourt advantage.
For what it’s worth, Kerr told Schiffer he’d only have thrown the game if he had direct orders from Obama to lose. Otherwise, Kim probably wouldn’t stand a chance against Kerr, who holds the NBA’s all-time 3-point percentage record at 45.4.
