Steve Kerr Rips Referees: ‘I Can Literally Put Together a Blooper Reel'

Steve Kerr and the Warriors are 9-2 and they have won five in a row.

But on Thursday afternoon, the head coach vented some frustration he has with the NBA's referees.

"How is it that everybody on Earth can see these traveling violations except for the three people that we pay to do the job? I don't get it. It's bizarre," Kerr said on KNBR 680. "It's (traveling) a point of emphasis on one particular play and that's when you catch and go ... it's just the one that the officials are taught to see.

"But I can literally put together a blooper reel of plays that are embarrassing travels that are just not called. I believe it's a case of they have so many things to look at -- they are looking at defensive three seconds, the contact in the lane when people are cutting through the lane, they're looking at the charge and block circle -- they're looking at everything except what they should be looking at which is the basic rule of the game, which is traveling.

"And it's a shame because guys are getting away with murder out there and the fans see it. My favorite is when you see the visiting team travel and you see like a 1,000 fans in the background all doing the traveling signal with their hands. If those people saw it, how come the refs didn't?"

Kerr's lament began because he felt Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan was getting away with taking extra steps in transition on Wednesday night.

The conversation then morphed into Kerr's feelings about the illegal defense rules.

"I think you should be able to do whatever you wnat defensively," Kerr declared. "And if you want to stick a guy in the middle of the lane and he's not gonna move, then I'm gonna put an extra shooter on the floor until that guy leaves ... there's a lot of people that are against that because they think the game will get clogged up -- that there won't be enough penetration to the rim and spectacular plays.

"And I think it it's an intersting argument but I would love to see the league get rid of that rule and let the defense do whatever they want, and it's up to the offense to adjust."

Kerr also wanted to clarify one thing.

"I want to make it clear -- our guys travel all the time, too. So this is not me saying, 'Hey, we're getting a raw deal.' But to me, it's such an important rule. It's the foundation of the game, and when it's violated, it just feels like we're not actually playing the game; we're playing some other form of the game that is unfair...

"The rules are already sort of geared towards the offense -- you can't handcheck, you can't put a hand on a guy or it's a foul. We give so many advantages to the offense; to let them travel and to let them carry the ball, is kind of ridiculous to me."
 

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