Warriors coach Steve Kerr praises Kings after Game 7 win: ‘They just became a contender’

The coaches have been close friends for years and their postgame embrace on Sunday afternoon in a subdued Golden 1 Center environment was long and genuine.

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr started off his postgame media session by complimenting Mike Brown, the NBA’s first unanimous NBA Coach of the Year, who in his first season transformed the one-time sad-sack Kings into a team to behold. The upstart Kings in their first playoff showing in 17 seasons gave the four-time champion Warriors everything they could handle.

Behind 50 points from Stephen Curry and 21 rebounds from Kevon Looney, the Warriors prevailed 120-100 in Game 7 to take the grueling first-round series to advance to a semifinal round against the Los Angeles Lakers, a series that starts Tuesday at Chase Center in San Francisco.

The Kings are finished, their best season since 2006 in the books, but Kerr said the Kings on a bigger scale are not going anywhere. This is a playoff team built to last, he said.

“They’ve had, frankly, a much better season than we have,” Kerr said of the Kings, who earned the No. 3 seed and home-court advantage over the sixth-seeded Warriors. “They put together a whole season where they just became a contender, and the young talent, the coaching, it was impressive to watch, so congrats to the Kings. We are thrilled to move on.”

Brown was on Kerr’s Golden State staff the previous six seasons before accepting the mother of all NBA challenges in resurrecting the Kings. He maximized the high-post passing of All-Star center Domantas Sabonis and the burst and scoring ability of All-Star guard De’Aaron Fox. Sabonis led the NBA in rebounding and Fox won the inaugural NBA Clutch Player of the Year award.

Kerr applauded Brown for how they ran their offense, the spacing, the passing, the prolific offense and depth, and it was on full display in Game 6 at Chase Center, a 118-99 Kings rout to force Game 7.

“They have a really fun team, a beautiful offense,” Kerr said. “They did a great job of putting a system in place that maximized their talent, and it was beautiful to watch them play this year. They’ve got a lot of young guys and a great coach, and they’ve made really good decisions organizationally. They have a very bright future and we have a lot of respect for them.”