George Washington could not tell a lie. Steve Kerr could not tell the truth.
The Golden State Warriors head coach told reporters he would start Andrew Bogut before Game 4. Instead, he moved Draymond Green to center and started Andre Iguodala. He rationalized his deceit by saying he did not want to tip his hand to the opposition.
What does it profit a man who gaineth a world championship but loseth his soul?
“I lied,” Kerr told reporters after the game. “I figure I have two press conferences on the day of the game, so I’m asked a lot of strategic questions. So my options were tell the truth (and I was asked both at the shoot-around and before the game). So, if I tell the truth, it’s the equivalent of me knocking on David Blatt’s door and saying, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do.’ I could evade the question, which would start this Twitter phenomenon: ‘Who is going to start for the Warriors?’ Or I could lie. So, I lied.”
The move worked. Iguodala scored 22 points and grabbed eight boards in the 103-82 win. More importantly, his defense turned All-World LeBron James into just another player on the court. Iguodala’s play clearly propelled Golden State to a crucial road victory. Whether the gamesmanship surrounding him starting influenced the outcome of the game is debatable.
“Sorry, but I don’t think they hand you the trophy based on morality,” justified Kerr. “They give it to you if you win. So, sorry about that.”
Not as sorry as all the frauds, falsifiers, and cheats burning in the bottomless pit. Dante assigns liars to the eighth circle of hell, a place where “horned demons with great whips” scourge the sinners “plunged in a filth that seemed to have come from human privies” and suffering from an everlasting inferno on the soles of their feet. Is eternal damnation in the Malebolge really worth a Larry O’Brien Trophy?
Next time, just knock on David Blatt’s door and give him your playbook.