Becoming the best in any sport is a rare feat. Maintaining that success over a long period of time is even more difficult. Steve Kerr has had more NBA success than most. He won five rings as a player and has four more as coach of the Golden State Warriors. Kerr is always humble about his own triumphs, giving credit to players like Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan and Steph Curry but it’s no accident that he keeps finding himself holding a trophy with confetti raining down on him.
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Kerr appeared on the most recent episode of the Glue Guys podcast, sharing a story of a time when the Warriors and he received an invaluable lesson from Roger Federer, widely considered the greatest tennis player of all-time.
The Warriors were in China in 2017 to participate in the NBA Global Games and Federer happened to be in town to play in the Shanghai Masters. Kerr arranged a meeting and after Draymond Green asked the Swiss legend how he sustains excellence, he received a surprising answer.
“I think everybody was expecting an answer like, ‘I work so hard and I do this and I do that,'” Kerr said, “but his answer was very Scottie Scheffler-like.”
“He said, ‘You know, I love my life. I wake up every morning, I cook breakfast for my kids, then I take ’em to school. And then I drop ’em off and then I go practice tennis for like two hours, and I’ve got a great routine now that I’ve figured out where I can get all my work in in a really joyful way without killing my body, but keeps me in great shape, ready for the next tournament,'”Kerr recalled.
“‘Then I go home and I love to cook, so I cook my kids dinner, and we hang around a little bit and everybody goes to bed, and I put my head on the pillow and I go, that was a great day. So I’ve been doing that for 20 years, and that works for me,'” he added.
Kerr referenced Scottie Scheffler, who recently said in a press conference before the Open Championship that golf wasn’t the be-all, end-all and that winning golf tournaments isn’t what ultimately gives him the most happiness. Having a well-rounded family life and a work-life balance is where he gets his joy from.
Federer and Scheffler both reached the top of their sport. Federer won 20 Grand Slams over a 15-year period, spending 310 weeks as the No.1-ranked player in the world. Scheffler is the clear-cut best golfer in the world right now, having won the PGA Championship and Open Championship this year to add to his two Masters wins from 2022 and 2024.
Scheffler has also held the No. 1 ranking for over two years without interruption. While he drew criticism from some narrow-minded people in sports media for his comments about what makes him happy, he went out and won the Claret Jug by four strokes just days after that press conference.
There’s a prevailing mindset among sports fans and media members that the only way to win and win big is to be singularly focused on just that. Family, friendships, other interests outside of your chosen sport, those are all just distractions that get in the way. Federer, Scheffler and Kerr are proof that there’s a better way to play, though.
After all, if you devote your life to winning at the expense of everything else, what was it all for? What’s the point, as Scheffler asked. Is it gratifying to sit alone in a room full of trophies or is it better to share it with others?
