Steve Kerr has coached in arenas that vibrate with playoff panic, in buildings that turn hostile in a single whistle, and in places where the noise alone can tilt a game. Sunday in Minneapolis felt different. Quieter. Heavier. After Golden State’s 111-85 blowout of the Timberwolves at Target Center, Kerr called the atmosphere one of the most “bizarre, sad” he has experienced around a game.
“Honestly what I felt was that their group was suffering,” Kerr said, adding that the vibe in the stands was “one of the most bizarre, sad games I’ve ever been a part of.”
Steve Kerr called the arena atmosphere in Minneapolis today one of the most “bizarre, sad” vibes he’s experienced at a game
Warriors blew out the Timberwolves.
“Honestly what I felt was that their group was suffering.” pic.twitter.com/K1EsR6Fr8j
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) January 26, 2026
The lopsided score suggested a routine road win. The night itself did not. The game had been postponed from Saturday, after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, by a federal officer during an immigration operation in Minneapolis, an incident that was the second shooting death by federal officers in the city that month. Players and coaches returned to the floor a day later in a city still processing grief and anger, and the building reflected it.
Before tipoff, Minnesota held a moment of silence for Pretti. Outside the arena, protests continued. Inside, the emotions didn’t stay outside the lines; they seeped into the pace, the energy, the focus. Kerr said he could sense it immediately, not just from the crowd, but from the Timberwolves themselves.
Golden State played like a team that understood the assignment: handle its business quickly, don’t let the game linger, don’t turn it into something chaotic. Stephen Curry scored 26 points, and the Warriors methodically stretched the margin until the fourth quarter felt like a formality.
Minnesota, meanwhile, never looked comfortable. And Kerr’s postgame comments, unusual not for their empathy, but for how plainly he described what he felt, suggested he saw a team trying to do its job while carrying something else on its back, with Kerr saying the “somber atmosphere” was unmistakable and that he could tell the Timberwolves were struggling with everything happening in the city.
It’s rare to hear an opposing coach put it that directly, especially after a blowout. But the Timberwolves weren’t the only ones affected. Kerr admitted the whole night felt off-kilter; game-day routines colliding with civic mourning, competition unfolding inside a community’s rawness. The arena wasn’t just a venue; it was a gathering place for people who had been living through something, and it came through in the air.
The broader context matters. Minneapolis has been shaken by back-to-back fatal incidents involving federal officers, and reporting around Pretti’s death has fueled calls for transparency, including questions about what happened in the moments before shots were fired. In that environment, basketball can feel both trivial and necessary: trivial because it cannot fix what’s broken, necessary because communities still look for places to be together.
Kerr, who has long been one of the NBA’s most outspoken coaches on social issues, didn’t turn the postgame into a lecture. He kept it human. He praised the hospitality Minnesota showed his team despite the circumstances and said the Warriors’ thoughts were with the city. But the most telling phrase was the one that wasn’t about politics, or policy, or blame, just emotion: “their group was suffering.”
The league will move on quickly, because it always does. These teams are scheduled to face each other again, compressing the emotional whiplash into the normal churn of an NBA season. But Sunday’s game will stick with people not for the score, but for the sensation Kerr described, the sense that everyone inside the building was trying to play a normal game on an abnormal night, in a city that didn’t feel ready for normal yet.
