Kerr keeps the faith; Vargas vows to push on

FILE – In this Monday, Nov. 28, 2016 file photo, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr directs his team during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Atlanta Hawks in Oakland, Calif.

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA —He is nowhere close to being the highest-paid head coach in the NBA.

He is not even on the list of the top 10 bench tacticians when it comes to salary.

That illustrious roster is led by Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs and Doc Rivers of the Los Angeles Clippers who get paid $11 million and $10 million a year, respectively.

But Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors says he will patrol the sidelines  for the current world champions for a long time because he loves what he does.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Kerr—in the fourth year of a five-year $25 million deal—expects to ink a contract extension next summer.

Chronicle sportswriter Connor Letourneau reports that the Warriors mentor “simply wants to feel good enough for an extended amount of time to commit to the organization long-term.”

Despite two back surgeries that have sidelined him in the past and chronic pain that bothers him occasionally, Kerr has led Golden State to two NBA titles, three NBA Finals and 240 regular-season wins in less than four seasons.

In March, he notched his 200th career regular-season coaching win in his 238th game, making him the fastest coach to reach 200 wins in the annals of professional sports.

Ex-broadcaster Edgar Picson, executive director of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (Abap) has the open microphone.

Naturally, he wonders out loud whether the Philippine Olympic Committee  would honor a recent court action or seek a temporary restraining order.

Judge Maria Garcia Cadiz-Casaclang of the Pasig Regional Trial Court recently annulled the POC polls of Nov. 16, 2016 that installed former Tarlac Rep. Jose Cojuangco Jr. without an opponent to a fourth four-year term.

The judge ordered that new POC elections be held on Feb. 23 to include Picson’s boss, Abap head Ricky Vargas and cycling’s Abraham Tolentino.

Both officials were disqualified from running as president and chair, respectively, on a general assembly attendance technically last year by the POC’s obedient commission on elections.

Moving forward, Vargas said recently that Cojuangco should obey the ruling and face him in an election.

Cojuangco’s group has been careful not to telegraph its counter move and has instead raised the specter of the Philippines’ suspension by the International Olympic Committee for government intervention to tune out attention to Judge Casaclang’s order.

“We will not second guess the IOC,” Picson said by e-mail. “But our stand is that the case did not involve government intervention because it was only for the clarification of the reasons why Vargas and Tolentino were disqualified.”

“It was a legal issue—clarification of the POC Comelec’s decision to disqualify and their interpretation of the term ‘active member,’” said Picson. “The court sustained our stand that the disqualification and their interpretation were both null and void.”

“The IOC has not said anything about the issue or whether they are even interested in it,”  added Picson. “We don’t need to seek clarification for something the IOC has not said anything about.”

The last time the IOC handed out a suspension was in 2015, the second against Kuwait in five years, leaving that country’s athletes out of the 2016 Rio Olympics and ending financial support to its Olympic committtee.

The world Olympic body’s executive board initiated the Gulf state’s initial suspension in 2005 and resolved it in 2010 for alleged political intervention.

The IOC resorted to the action after Kuwait failed to meet a deadline for amending a law that allows its government to interfere in elections of sports organizations.