Before he even held the clipboard or broke down game film, Nicholas Kerr was just a baby in a hotel room in Orlando, the son of an NBA role player trying to find his way in the league. Steve Kerr had just been traded from Cleveland to the Magic, and a three-week-old Nick was along for the ride—literally.
Then again, it’s a fitting start to someone who was, quite literally, born into the world of basketball.
Nicholas Zwicker Kerr is the oldest of three kids born to Steve and Margot Kerr, college sweethearts who met at the University of Arizona thanks to a well-placed double date arranged by Steve’s longtime friend and assistant coach, Bruce Fraser. “I think he thought, ‘These two are nerdy, they’ll get along,’” Margot once joked to SF Gate. And get along, they did. Great instincts there, Q!
The two hit it off and stuck it out, even while bouncing across the country during Steve’s early years. And joining them was none other than little Nick. He spent the early parts of his childhood in Chicago during the Bulls’ dynasty years. Yes, those Bulls. “He was on my shoulders when we celebrated the championship in ‘96 at the age of 3 and a half,” Kerr told East Bay Times. “One of my favorite memories … He’s obsessed just like I am.”
And now, that obsession has gotten the greatest recognition. The Warriors welcomed the newest member to their entourage of coaching staff—Nicholas Kerr. After a strong run as the head coach of the Santa Cruz Warriors, the 32-year-old joins the Golden State’s back room ahead of the 2025-26 season.
While his last name has undoubtedly opened doors, Nick is carving out his own identity on the sidelines, with a resume that is hard to ignore. So, why don’t we take a deeper look at Nick’s life?
Is Nicholas Kerr married?
The straight answer is yes, he is. In September 2021, Nick Kerr married his wife, Kendall, but beyond that not much is known and that’s just how he likes it. By now, you might have gotten an idea that the man likes to keep a low profile off the court. Even during his time with the Spurs, Nick shied away from attention.
“He’s embarrassed by it,” Kerr said in 2018. “He doesn’t want any attention. He loves his team… he’s unbelievably loyal to [the coach] and to the players, and I couldn’t be more proud of him.” And that pride? It is mutual.
“We’re just friends now,” he shared with WCC This Week about his relationship with his Dad. “I guess he’s past the point of parenting where we’re just friends and talk to each other.” They text after games. They swap observations. And now, they share the sideline. But what about the journey that brought him to this moment? Let’s start with his college.
Which college did Nicholas Kerr go to?
Nick Kerr’s basketball journey didn’t start with a whistle and a clipboard; it began on the court. He played college basketball at the University of San Diego from 2011 to 2015. During this time, he studied business administration. He wasn’t filling up the stat sheet—he averaged just 1.5 points in his final season—but coaches loved him for the little things: hustle, IQ, and unselfishness. “I think Nick does a lot of things for our program that really don’t ever show up in the stats sheet,” his coach Bill Grier said on WCC This Week.
As a sophomore, he appeared in 20 games and scored twelve points in a win over the Pacific. In his final season, he saw action in six games. Off the court, Nick earned spots on the NABC Honors Court, the WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll, and the 2013-14 West Coast Conference All-Academic Team. After USD, Nick transferred to UC Berkeley for grad school in public health. But also—let’s be real—he was moving closer to his dad.
“That was a big part of why I transferred up here, to be with my dad, came here as much as I could and go to practices,” he told The Mercury News. It was there, serving as a graduate assistant for the Cal men’s basketball team, that things started to click. Needless to say, it was the start of something special.
How did Steve Kerr’s son, Nicholas, get into coaching?
Nicholas Kerr didn’t just fall into coaching because his Dad has nine rings and a courtside seat to NBA history. He earned his way up—but he’s also the first to admit that the door wasn’t just open, it was wide open. “I would never have gotten into the NBA without a family connection,” he said candidly to The Mercury News. “I had not even a crack in the door, I had the door wide open for me”.
But here’s the thing about open doors: you still have to walk through them and then do the work once you’re in. And Nick’s been doing that ever since he realized his basketball ceiling wasn’t as a player, but maybe as the guy helping others reach theirs. As we saw above, he wasn’t the most gifted athlete, but he understood the game. More importantly, he loved it.
That love took him to San Antonio for a stint with the Spurs (where Pop reportedly joked that they had to “pat [Nick Kerr] down every day after work”), then back to the Bay Area to join the Warriors as a video coordinator. By 2021, he had earned a spot on the coaching staff of the Santa Cruz Warriors, eventually becoming their head coach. And Nick Kerr didn’t waste the opportunity.
Santa Cruz went 20-14 and finished in fourth place in the G League’s Western Conference each of the past two seasons. And Seth Cooper, the then-director of player development of Warriors, said that Nicholas Kerr was “the best candidate of everyone we talked to.”
In many ways, Nick Kerr’s story feels like a basketball fairytale. A son grows up idolizing the game his father played and coached at the highest level. Then he joins that same world—not as a shadow, but as a light of his own. But behind the fairytale is a guy who’s worked hard, stayed humble, and earned respect where it matters most: inside the locker room, and alongside the clipboard.
And now, with the 2025–26 season on the horizon, the Golden State Warriors are welcoming Nick to the big bench—teaming up with his dad to chase one more playoff run with Steph Curry and a retooled squad that now includes Jimmy Butler. Steve Kerr once said of watching Nick coach, “It wasn’t so much nerves, it was more just pride. It was just a great visual sitting there watching him on the sidelines and I yelled at the refs a couple times. I felt like a good dad.”
Basketball is still a family business in the Kerr household. But for Nick, it’s more than blood. It’s a calling
The post Who Is Steve Kerr’s Son Nicholas? Relationship Status, Basketball Career and More appeared first on EssentiallySports.