ESPN Denies Report of $7M Annual Offer to Steve Kerr

ESPN denied reports that it offered Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr $7 million per year to join its NBA coverage.

Burke Magnus, ESPN executive vice president of programming and original content, pushed back Sunday against a story from Awful Announcing headlined "ESPN reportedly offered Steve Kerr $7M annually." Magnus quote-posted the story on X and wrote, "For anyone that may care, this is not true."

Awful Announcing later updated its story with a stronger denial from Magnus. "We have too much respect for Coach Kerr. We were not even going to engage until he made a decision on coaching," Magnus said, according to the blog.

The original report came from Tim Kawakami of the San Francisco Standard. Kawakami wrote Saturday that Kerr "can walk into a top analyst’s job anytime he wants," that ESPN was "especially aggressive about the chase" and was "probably offering up to $7 million per." He added that ESPN was willing to meet almost any condition, including keeping Kerr away from hot-take panel shows.

Awful Announcing wrote that ESPN offered Kerr $7 million per year. ESPN responded publicly to the framing.

Kerr agreed to a two-year deal to remain with Golden State, ending weeks of uncertainty about coaching Stephen Curry and the Warriors. Kawakami reported Kerr’s annual salary is expected to remain near $17.5 million, keeping him as the NBA’s highest-paid coach.

ESPN has spent years stabilizing its NBA booth. It fired Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson, brought in Doc Rivers before he left for the Bucks, elevated Doris Burke, watched J.J. Redick leave to coach the Lakers and moved Tim Legler into the lead group with Mike Breen and Richard Jefferson. ESPN also secured rights to distribute TNT’s "Inside the NBA."

Magnus did not deny interest in Kerr. He denied that ESPN would offer a formal contract before Kerr decided his coaching future. Kerr is headed back to the Warriors on a two-year deal.