Steve Kerr is one person who is not shy to express his views on current issues, including politics. On multiple occasions, Kerr has criticized the current U.S. administration and has been branded anti-Trump, among other things. There have even been recent rumors that he could lose his job as head coach of the Golden State Warriors due to excessive political activism .
Despite that, Kerr wasn't shy to call out the U.S. government for the current war in Iran, which he says has already claimed thousands of innocent lives.
"My dad was killed by Iranian proxies forty-two years ago. I have no regard for the Iranian regime whatsoever. But the answer does not lie in starting a war and killing innocent people. Imagine being a parent of one of the one hundred and seventy-five girls who died when their school was bombed. Their loss, their suffering...How are they going to feel about America? Violence begets violence," said Kerr.
Kerr was only 18 years old and a freshman at the University of Arizona in 1984, when his father, Malcolm, who was then the president of American University in Beirut, was gunned down by two members of an Islamic Jihadist group with ties to Hezbollah, outside his office.
Malcolm was the son of educators who taught at the same University for 40 years and grew up in Lebanon, on and near the AUB campus. After finishing his studies in the U.S., he returned to the Middle East and, in 1982, was appointed president of AUB at the height of the Lebanese Civil War. Yet despite being a prominent and well-respected personality in that part of the globe, Steve's dad was a victim of political terrorism.
However, while the Dubs coach has always been vocal against Iran, he does not support the United States government's current military offensive against the Islamic nation, which has been going on since February this year.
"I think we're as weak as we've ever been as a country, at least in a long time, because our leadership is so misguided. There's a lack of humility, a lack of dignity, a lack of understanding of the world, a lack of embracing other perspectives. The belligerence," he added.
In 2017, during President Trump's first term as POTUS, Kerr also referenced his father's murder while criticizing his administration's immigration policy , which banned visitors and refugees from a list of predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States.
"If we're trying to combat terrorism by banishing people from coming to this country, by really going against the principles of what our country is about and creating fear, it's the wrong way of going about it," Kerr said . "If anything, we could be breeding anger and terror. So I'm completely against what's happening."
"I think it's shocking. It's a horrible idea," he added. "I feel for all the people that are affected. Families are being torn apart, and I worry in the big picture what this means to the security of the world. It's going about it completely opposite. You want to solve terror, you want to solve crime, this is not the way to do it."
Critics call Ker an anti-Trump crusader. However, if you look closely at the issues he's been talking about and his reasons for doing so, it always involves family, war, and terrorism. Knowing what happened to Steve's family after his father was murdered, it's always been more than political preference for the former sharpshooter. It's about family tragedy, first and foremost.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Apr 27, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
