Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (30) hugs his mother, Sonya, as he wife, Ayesha, left, looks on after Game 7 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets Sunday, May 4, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) hugs his mother, Sonya, as he wife, Ayesha, left, looks on after Game 7 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets Sunday, May 4, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
SAN FRANCISCO – Draymond Green did not have to look very far – in both a space or time sense – to recall the last time his mother was disappointed in the way he had acted during a game.
Holding his phone in his right hand during Wednesday’s press conference after a 120-113 Warriors win over the Milwaukee Bucks, Green read off, rapid-fire, a number of recent texts from his mother, Mary Babers.
“Remember what you love, and stop abusing it,” one text read, while another, written after a recent ejection, was simply: “What happened?”
Basketball is an emotional game, with its players and coaches sometimes prone to losing their cool. And if there was one thing to be learned from the press conference before and after Golden State’s victory, it was this:
Age and basketball accomplishments cannot diminish a man’s fear or respect for his mother.
A few days earlier, Steve Kerr, 60, had drawn the ire of official Brian Forte when the Warriors coach had to be restrained while directing a stream of profanities in his direction after the Warriors were on the wrong end of several controversial calls.
Kerr, who was ejected in the loss to the Clippers, was not worried about how the league or his players would react to his outburst. Instead, his biggest critic after the ejection was his mother, Ann Kerr, who lives in Southern California and made the short trip to Inglewood.
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr gestures to his team during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Brooklyn Nets Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr gestures to his team during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Brooklyn Nets Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Ms. Kerr was not pleased with her son’s behavior.
“She looked horrified afterwards, and she asked me if I was going to hit the referee,” Kerr said. “I said, ‘Mom, I’ve never hit anybody in my life …. She said, ‘Why were all of those men holding you back?’ Well, that’s all part of the theatrics.”
Theatrics got superstar Steph Curry in trouble with his mother, Sonya, during a 2018 playoff series with Houston.
“I did the ‘This is my (expletive) house,’ and right into the camera, too,” Curry said, sheepishly adding. “No plausible deniability.”
Even the opposing team got in on the action. Bucks coach Doc Rivers, an accomplished point guard back in the 1980s and 1990s, once disappointed his mother by using foul language in the heat of the action.
“Oh yeah, my mom, she is a churchgoing lady, and I wasn’t using the right language one game, she called and let me have it,” Rivers said. “It’s interesting ’cause you say ‘I’m sorry,’ but you do know the next day you’re gonna do it again. It’s a tough one.”
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