Steve Kerr spent three years of school in Cairo, and now after being gone for more than 35 years, he’s back in the city aiming to connect with young people through basketball.
The Warriors’ head coach is part of the NBA and FIBA Africa’s Basketball Without Borders camp, which included a media event on Sunday. Four other head coaches and four NBA players are with Kerr as they aim to help several dozen boys and girls from the continent pursue their basketball dreams.
“I brought my wife, my daughter, her husband,” Kerr told ESPN. “It’s great to be visiting Egypt again, and doing so while coaching and being a part of BWB made it a perfect trip.”
Kerr, 56, said the last time he visited Cairo was 1985, one year after his father was killed in Beirut, where both Kerrs were born.
The younger Kerr attended Cairo American College as a teen and made the school part of his visit this week, speaking to the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams.
Kerr also made another stop in his travels, visiting Liverpool FC in England. It turns out his rooting interest in that club is also related to an Egypt tie: superstar forward Mohamad Salah.
“I knew how beloved he was in Egypt, so I said: ‘That’s my guy!'” Kerr told ESPN. “I wanted to cheer for Mohamed Salah and when I found out he played for Liverpool, I said: ‘OK, that’s my team!’ So, I’ve been a Liverpool fan ever since.”
One day after Liverpool broke out of an early-season rut with a 9-0 thrashing of Bournemouth, Salah posted a photo of himself, along with teammates Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold, speaking to Kerr at the team’s training grounds.
KUMINGA MAKES NATIONAL TEAM DEBUT
Kerr is the only Warriors representative in the BWB camp contingent, but he’s not the only Warrior on the continent, as Jonathan Kuminga is playing in 2023 World Cup qualifiers for his native Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Kuminga made his national team debut, leading the Congo DR in scoring in each of three games and averaging 17.7 points to go with 5.3 rebounds. But his team lost all three games and sits fifth in a six-team qualifying group halfway through the 18-game qualifying window.
There are currently 12 teams in the second qualifying round, and five will advance to the World Cup, which will be played in Japan, Indonesia and the Phillipines next September. The Congo is currently sitting on 13 points, just two behind Senegal for the final qualification spot.
The next three-game qualification window is in February, when Kuminga will be busy stateside.
