Kerr and Gentry are always bouncing ideas off each other.
(Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images)
Since the advent of fantasy basketball, everybody believes that they can be a GM. Most fans have visions of a man maniacally working deals on the phone and using a staff of MIT grads to crack stats. So in order to dispel all (most) the myths, Suns President of Basketball Operations and GM Steve Kerr told Suns.com what his days are like.
Day at the Office
The thing with this job is that every day is different and that’s what makes it fun and exciting. There is a lot of stress, though, and I find it important to exercise on a daily basis to keep my mind and my body healthy. So I frequently work out in our locker room, either with our training staff early in the morning or on my own in the evenings. It usually depends on my schedule and possibly the team’s schedule, but one way or another I need to break a sweat – it keeps me going.
I frequently have morning meetings. Every Wednesday I take part in revenue meetings with all of the managers from different departments. I also have a radio show once a week on Sports 620 KTAR. It’s important to maintain communication with our fans, so I try to do that both through the radio and with conversations with people on the street or in the stands at our home games. I like hearing what our fans think of our team.
Every day, I have about 30 or 40 e-mails to respond to, whether they’re from the media or the NBA. I receive a ton of memos from the league involving anything from a player fine to a directive to our team about a uniform violation. I also will communicate directly with the league any time we have questions about rules or officiating. For example, after last week’s game with Orlando when the officials looked over instant replay and reset the game clock at the very end of the game, I called Stu Jackson to discuss the issue. Given that the instant replay rules are new this year, there was some confusion on everyone’s part as to what the actual letter of the law states regarding clock resetting.
The league has done a good job of giving teams the ability to communicate with them directly when it comes to the officiating. We frequently use a website where you can link up and send a disputed play into the league office, and they always send us a response immediately. Between issues like that or conversations with agents or other general managers, there’s a ton of correspondence in this job. I’m on the phone and on my computer all day.
I read the NBA box scores every night after all the games are played then I come in and read Hoops Hype in the mornings, because I like to know what’s going on around the league, just like everybody else. I also read our own newspaper clips, so that I’m aware of what our coaches and players are saying to the media. Generally speaking our guys do a great job of being professional and communicating well with the media, but it’s good to keep an eye on all of that stuff.
Today I’m going to watch the two tapes of Taylor Griffin’s games in Iowa when he played with the Energy, our D-League affiliate. I like the development opportunity the D-League provides for young players like Taylor, and we’ll definitely send him to Des Moines again for more playing time. I just got off the phone with Iowa’s head coach, Nick Nurse, to get his evaluation on how Taylor played.
A lot of time after work I’ll have a dinner engagement with some of the scouting guys or Griff (Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin) or Alvin (Suns Head Coach Alvin Gentry) or a sponsor. Or I’ll just head home. If I miss my workout in the morning, I’ll exercise in the evenings and then head home.
