Steve Kerr Commemorates Dejan Milojević | Jan. 22, 2024

Steve Kerr Commemorates Dejan Milojević | Jan. 22, 2024

Hi Janie who wants to start oh thank you what was this can you just explain what this last week was like for you and the team just emotionally everything such an unusual week obviously it’s hard to hard to describe the week um heartbreaking devastating um you know it’s it’s a

It’s just the saddest thing I’ve ever been a part of in the NBA you know um where um you know we lose uh someone who’s so close to us um and then um more importantly um seeing his family suffer um you know so this last week has

Been last five days I guess has been full of all of the above the shock the emotion um the um extreme outpouring of love from all over the world I don’t know if any of you saw we watched as a team this morning the um the event that

They had in Serbia you know dey’s two teams were playing against each other um it just happened to be on the schedule tonight uh Mega the team he coached versus partisan on the team he starred for and um I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like um the pregame uh

Dedication um from the fans and the organizations there two two DEC was um incredible we watched it as a team and and um so I I think we got a better sense of just what Dei meant to his countrymen um of course how much he meant to us um and

To Natasha and Masha and Nia um you know it’s been just a a devastating week how has the organization just tried to process this and be be there for each other during the past week well um yeah I mean it’s um it’s there’s no handbook for this you know

You just try to um be together um I think the sense the overall sense is you just want to be with um each other when something like this happens you want to be with the team you want to be with coaches and want to be with dey’s family

And um so all of that has been happening over the last five days um not a whole lot you can say other than expressing how you know how much you love each other how much you loved Dei uh how much this team means to us how much we all

Mean to each other um we we talk about perspective pretty often you know here with the team and how lucky we are to play and coach in the NBA but of course perspective doesn’t really hit home until it hits home and um and that’s um you know been a topic of discussion here

The last last few days the guys are trying get through it as best they can yesterday um we just had kind of open gyms so they could play pickup ball um today we had our first U practice and um we got through it but um you know not

Easy not easy St alluded excuse me alluded to my next question which was after watching the tribute that happened in Belgrade and coming together just what was the mood and the energy like it practice you well we um once we watched that we took um an hour before we started practice um

You know just to to get guys right you know we we kind of have our golden hour every morning anyway after film where guys are getting you know into the training room and into the weight room and and so we did that but today it felt

More like just um we needed an hour to process the emotion of what we watched and um and what our guys are all feeling you know as they get back on out onto the court for the first time without without Dey for a practice and you had a

Really great quote in the statement that you guys put out after his passing of just the light that that he brought what what’s a memory or moment that you shared with Dey that really you think just captures well Dey had an an an amazing way of being very direct and honest

Um without threatening anyone you know and sometimes those coaches meetings can get contentious you know we all have different ideas and and he always was just had a gleam in his eye and a laugh uh even when he was challenging us especially when he was challenging the

Rest of the group and um he had a lot of great funny sayings that he would use um sometimes um Serbian words sometimes just kind of his his English version of things and um he was just a a guy who just um constantly saw the good in

People and the joy in life and um you know how could you not um Embrace and love that every day when you’re coming into a season that goes from seven to nine months um I mean that’s exactly the kind of person I want to be with every

Day and um you know decky was that guy for everybody Steve as the as the coach who’s kind of you know you got to lead this thing but that’s obviously a personal loss for you too like how did how did did you transition or if you did it all from you know

Somebody who’s mourning to somebody who’s got to lead you know and be there for your assistant coaches and and and your players like how does that work when you’re the guy everybody’s going to look to to lead in this situation I think it um it it it it just

Comes with the territory you know if if you’re um you know if you’re if you’re leading um a group of people um and that’s your literally your job um as a coach then I think you automatically want to take care of everybody and and look after

Them and make sure the right um things are happening and so I give um a lot of credit to Rick celebrini um you know we were we were all together in the restaurant that night and um Rick’s one of our um leaders he’s a he’s an incredible leader of men and

Um you know Rick was there every every step of the way and um you know um something that I’ll never forget is is seeing um seeing Rick’s leadership and the way he um looked after decky and looked after everybody um Rick’s an amazing human being uh Steve the NBA schedule can be

Relentless um before Dey passed you guys had a four day stretch on the schedule between games and then the league recognized the magnitude of what you’re going through by postponing the two games how has it been having this time to mourn and regroup well we needed it

Um and I I I want to thank um the NBA Adam Silver um for uh postponing those two games um there’s no way any of us could have um walked out onto a court and played a basketball game either Wednesday or Friday um so I want to thank um thank

Adam um and the Mavericks and the Jazz because those games will be made up and it will complicate the schedule for them so I want to thank everybody um I also want to thank uh the University of Utah um every single person uh who we came

Across um you know that that night uh the night um of dey’s heart attack um was just incredible the care that they gave Dey and gave to all of us was amazing and I if any of their staff is watching I want to say a sincere thank you they were um remarkable

Um but you know for us it’s um everybody on our team everybody in our organization um is traumatized it’s um you know you just you know part of life is you experience loss you know everyone is going to experience loss at some point in their life um but um you know doesn’t often

Happen in front of you it doesn’t often happen to someone with um kids um and it doesn’t happen often where um it’s it’s someone um who is so beloved um worldwide um so everything that’s happened over the last 5 days has been um just um jarring just um incredibly emotional

Powerful um and more than anything heartbreaking um and I think we said in our statement that um we are grieving with and for um Natasha and and and Masha and Nia um because um you know our lives are all affected by this their lives are affected um dramatically more than anyone’s forever and

Um that’s not an easy thing to uh to process Steve Steve you you kind of just touched on something I was going to ask you and that’s um this this happened in front of you guys and and some of your young players maybe have never lost someone um maybe

Others older people haven’t lost someone yet but how how do you support them with outside help if that’s needed has there been some some counseling service in here in the in here in the building groups individuals we we are uh making counseling available to everyone in the organization uh and in particular

Those who were at the restaurant and um and that’s something that um will be crucial you know moving forward um everyone processes grief a different way and um we have to attend to everybody’s needs and we will we will do so not everybody was there not everyone

Was there I I want to say maybe five players um not all the coaches but a lot of them and and and um various other staff members um so I I don’t know what the traveling you know what the what the total number of people who were there um

At dinner is um but you know it was a lot of lot of people and it’s um pretty terrible thing to witness yeah um coach how does I this affects everyone but particularly the players he worked closely with um Lon as one of them how are they handling all of

This players are doing as as well as possible um you know they’re there are several guys who Dei was extremely close with um you know Lon for sure Dario Dario was an absolute Superstar uh the last four or five days um Superstar the way he um looked after Atasha and de

Family um and continues to do so day after day you know he um knew Dei better than any of us and he’s uh suffering right now but also caring for dei’s family um Lon Lon and Dei were extremely close Draymond and Dei really close um everybody was close everybody was close

With Dei um it was impossible not to be you know the way he treated everyone you mentioned how important it was to have those two games postponed at this point I mean how do you you know flip the page and and turn to Wednesday and what do you expect

Those emotions to be like on Wednesday night Wednesday will be unbelievably emotional for our players for our Organization for our fans um for dey’s family um there’s like I said there’s no handbook for this um we will honor Dei the best way we know uh Wednesday night

We’ll um we’ll be there to play a basketball game um we will uh find a way to mourn and grieve and and play all on the same evening Steve um my sincere condolences um I think when we heard the news a lot of us that may have already lost a parent um

Immediately think about our own experiences and knowing you’ve had that experience as well I’m curious how much did your own personal experience when you were talking to Natasha and Nola and Masha come into how you consol them and how you spoke with them yeah um I I just you know I I

Obviously will’ll keep all those conversations um private but um you know I think anybody who has been through um extreme severe loss um Can automatically relate you know um I lost my dad when I was 18 and so um I literally knew exactly how Masha and Nia were feeling

Exactly um and um you know the it’s kind of crazy but um uh Friday was the 40th anniversary of my dad’s death um 40 years uh it’s a long time um but it’ll always be there and for for any of us um who have suffered loss it’s loss

Is loss and and um it’s there forever but um you know the the the family uh has so much love around them um from everywhere I mean I can’t tell you how many texts I got from people around the league who just adored Dei and um from

Around the world and um watching that celebration of his life today and the crowd expressing their love for Dey was um one of the most amazing things I’ve ever watched if you haven’t seen it look it up um and carve out 15 minutes because it goes on and on and on it was

Um it was amazing uh coach um my condolences um what what about him that you learned in the last week and you hope the world learned in the last week that they could celebrate about his life on and off the court that perhaps they didn’t know

Before because he wasn’t a coach in a spotlight here obviously know in Serbia but people are learning so much more about him now yeah I mean I I don’t know that we’re learning a whole lot I I think watching today um we had the a real

Sense of the legend that he is in Serbia we knew you know we knew he’s a great player great coach you know three-time MVP of the Adriatic League um we’ve shown highlights of decki before to the team um you know usually um for humor’s sake but you know our our players are

Are well aware that he was a great player and a great coach but watching today I’m not sure we had the sense of what a legend he is in Serbia um everything else that you guys are learning we’ve known forever just the smile The Joy um how much he loved life

How much he loved his family loved his his players um we’ve felt that since day one Steve I see you’re you’re wearing the the shirt yeah what did um when you’re putting that shirt on what’s going through your mind um just you know uh when we were on

The flight back from Salt Lake on Friday morning um we were talking about how can we honor Dei and and so some of the guys um had the idea of a shirt and brate was what Dei called everybody brother you know he called all of his fellow coaches

Brate um and we wanted the heart because he was so full of love full of joy um for all of us and and um vice versa and um and then his nickname on on the back um we’re sending these shirts out to all over the league so all the people who knew them

And loved him will have these shirts as well um to wear them uh there was a nice ceremony before the game on Friday down in Santa Cruz do you know what the organization is planning for on Wednesday yeah we’re we’re planning to to honor uh Dei and

His family but all of those U plans are being worked on as we speak this doesn’t seem like a very important question but kind of following up on what Kendra asked earlier as to how you get going again for Wednesday um from a basketball sense to have a eight n day

Break is so unusual how do you deal with that how do you how does that shape what you do the next couple days to get ready you know I I I lean on Ron Adams for so much Ron has been um a mentor for me obviously an amazing coach for all of

Our players and for our coaches but you know I lean on him for wisdom and and I asked him a couple days ago I said how do we um how do we go on from here what do we do and Ron thought for a second and he said it’s it’s um relatively simple

You ask the guys what would Dei want us to do and I thought about it and I literally could picture Dey smiling and laughing and saying you need to go win a basketball game and then laughing and that’s so sorry for the language but I’m just I just wanted

To share exactly what my vision of Dei that’s exactly what he would have said with a smile on his face he would have laughed um he would have you know win or lose still been smiling and laughing and having great suggestions as to what we could do differently um but he really

Embodied the um the spirit and the values that we try to um to display as a team and as or as an organization we are unbelievably competitive but joyful and uh compassionate to each other and and we’re gonna we’re GNA you know do everything we can to win and

We’re going to enjoy life no matter what and that’s that’s who he was and that’s how we’re going to continue in that in that spir yeah in that Spirit um how do you coach today and tomorrow do you you know focus more on sort of the managing

The emotions of your players or I mean at some point you have to also prepare for Atlanta right I’ll let you know after because I don’t know thank you

Steve Kerr sits down with the media to reflect and remember the legacy of Golden State Warriors Assistant Coach Dejan Milojević.