Steve Kerr's been beating the odds his whole life

Kerr had earned a lasting reputation in college and in the NBA as a gutsy competitor, a loyal teammate, and an incomparable shooter. Sportswriters and fans adored him as a great quote, a funny guy, and a gentleman, win or lose.

But until he took the gig as GM, Kerr never had hired or fired anybody in his life. Then, in short order last summer, he rejected Marion's contract extension, and traded Kurt Thomas and two future draft picks to Seattle, the latter essentially for nada.

The Thomas deal still eats at Kerr, who thinks the world, personally and professionally, of the 12-year NBA veteran. But he says it had to be done for financial purposes (the Suns would have owed Thomas $16 million for this year and next, and that would have put the franchise well over the league-mandated salary cap).

What added insult to injury is that Thomas later landed in San Antonio, where he is playing an important role in the ongoing series against his old team.

But Marion's contractual issues and the Kurt Thomas trade had nowhere near the impact of the Shaq deal, one of basketball's biggest and most controversial trades in years.

Even before the swap, Kerr was sorting out what he calls "the awkwardness" of his new position — including how to finesse the changed dynamics of his relationship with top brass in the Suns front office, particularly Coach Mike D'Antoni.

Last season, D'Antoni served as both head coach and general manager after then-GM Bryan Colangelo took the same job with the Toronto Raptors.

When Kerr entered the picture, D'Antoni became a subordinate to the neophyte GM overnight, a change both men concede took time to wrap their heads around.

"We've come a long way in terms of trusting each other," Kerr says. "I've always liked the guy and his demeanor. Not a lot really gets under his skin. I admire his background — all of his travels in Italy, his perseverance — and it doesn't hurt that our political beliefs are similar."

For the record, those beliefs are liberal.

D'Antoni tells New Times, "Obviously, we have our spheres of influence and ideas, but Steve has been doing a great job of getting us as many weapons as possible to be able to be successful."

The coach laughs when asked if Kerr grills him about why or how he used a player during a given game.

"Not if he wants to live long," D'Antoni says. "That wouldn't work."

D'Antoni has been an innovative leader since his hiring as head coach in early 2004. He then led the internationally popular Suns into the NBA's elite after Steve Nash rejoined the team before the 2004-05 season. It won him an NBA Coach of the Year award after Nash's first year back.

Nash, himself winner of the league's Most Valuable Player award in back-to-back seasons, led a renaissance of run-and-gun style and substance that translated into a ton of wins.

But winning the franchise's first NBA championship, or even getting to the league Finals, has been elusive, and it didn't seem as though the dream was getting any closer as this season progressed.

Though the Suns had a stellar record of 34-15 when they traded for Shaq, the team seemed to have lost some of its feel-good vibe in and out of the locker room.

Just days before the trade, Nash, in a rare admission, told reporters, "We haven't had that same joy. We just need to shut up and play ball."

Though this team never will be confused with a juggernaut, it did become far more formidable in the last weeks of the regular season. Still, this year has seemed like one long adjustment process for the players, coaches and general manager, even now in the desperate struggle against the Spurs.

Kerr says he's learned that "a big part of my job is simply seeing people, and having them see me, and be able to speak with me if they want. I still am feeling my way through it. For instance, I have absolutely no role during the games except to watch. I have no input in what's going on down on the court, I'm not doing commentary, and I'm obviously done playing, so it's just different."

Most important to Kerr, he's had to juggle his Suns duties with family life, which means more to him than riding in any victory parade after winning a title.

"My refuge from all this is to go home," he says. "I want to be a great parent more than anything else."

Kerr has tried all season, not always successfully, never to spend more than three nights in succession away from his family (his children Nick, Maddy, and Matt are 15, 13, and 10, respectively).

The Kerrs live in an upscale neighborhood just outside San Diego, not far from Suns majority owner Sarver.

"He can multi-task the way a woman can, 10 things at once," says his mother, Ann Zwicker Kerr, the Fulbright coordinator at the UCLA International Institute.