Coach Steve Kerr reveals entire Warriors team felt ‘traumatized’ after Dejan Milojevic’s death

The Golden State organization was given an extended break to grieve the death of late assistant coach Dejan Milojevic last week, and missed out on their last two games of regular season. This past Monday, they finally returned to Chase Center to resume their training as they prepare to face the Atlanta Hawks this Wednesday evening.

However, things haven’t been easy for the Bay Area squad these past five days, as coach Steve Kerr revealed the entire Warriors team has felt traumatized by the incident, as the 46-year-old passed away after suffering a heart attack at a squad dinner the night before.

“It’s a pretty terrible thing to witness,” the trainer started out his press conference. “Everybody on our team, everybody in our organization is traumatized. Part of life is you experience loss. Everyone is going to experience loss at some point in their life. But it doesn’t often happen in front of you.”

The Warriors are back at practice today for the first time since the passing of assistant coach Dejan Milojevic.

Golden State has not played a game since MLK Day. Their next scheduled game is January 24 at home vs. the Hawks.

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Kerr shared that at least five players witnessed the whole ordeal at the restaurant where Milojevic suffered his heart attack alongside other coaches and staff.

“It doesn’t often happen to someone with kids and it doesn’t happen often where it’s someone who is so beloved worldwide. So everything that’s happened over the last five days has been just jarring, just incredibly emotional, powerful, and more than anything heartbreaking,” he shared.

The Golden State athletes have spent their past days receiving counseling services, as Kevon Looney remembers working especially close to the Serbian legend. “It’s been tough,” he said. “Just trying to be around my family and teammates as much as possible, just remembering him, telling stories about him, things like that.”

“Not trying to run away from it, but trying to embrace it and talk about him and what I’m going through with people close to me,” the forward said, who later mentioned Dejan’s family. “We are grieving with and for Natasa, Masa and Nikola because our lives are all affected by this. Their lives are affected dramatically more than anyone’s forever, and that’s not an easy thing to process.”

Another player who has close to the late assistant coach was Dario Saric, who has revealed in the past that Milojevic convinced him to sign for the Golden State club.

Coach Kerr says there is no handbook for how to deal with these situations as he admits no one was prepared to face an NBA match last week

Now the San Francisco franchise are still finishing up details over how they will honor the Serbian icon on Wednesday night, when they receive the Atlanta Hawks at home in Chase Center.

“Wednesday will be unbelievably emotional for our players, for our organization, for our fans, for Deki’s family. There’s no handbook for this,” Kerr explained. “We will honor Deki the best way we know Wednesday night. We’ll be there to play a basketball game. We will find a way to mourn and grieve and play all in the same evening.”

While the Warriors’ matches against the Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks have been postponed after last week’s tragedy, the team’s head coach took the opportunity to thank the league for allowing the organization to work through the shock and mourn their former staff member.

“There’s no way any of us could have walked out onto a court and played a basketball game either Wednesday or Friday,” he assured. “… So I want to thank everybody. I also want to thank the University of Utah. Every single person who we came across that night, the night of Deki’s heart attack, was just incredible. The care that they gave to Deki and gave to all of us was amazing and if any of their staff is watching I want to say a sincere thank you. They were remarkable.”