Steve Kerr broke NBA rule when he took off his jacket (really!)

Steve Kerr broke a rule, and no one was the wiser.

The Golden StateWarriors’ head coach took off his coat less than a minute into the fourth quarter of Golden State’s Game 2 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday. Unlike the last time he took his jacket off — after a heated argument with a referee over a foul call in a 2015 NBA Finals game against the Cleveland Cavaliers — this one was measured.

No one knew it was a rule violation until ESPN’s Marc Stein unearthed that little detail Sunday morning. Ties are not mandatory for NBA coaches, he reported, but sport coats or suit jackets are.

It has since been reported Kerr is dangerously ill, and took off his coat as a preventative measure. He went on to miss Game 3 due to his illness, needing to be pumped with fluids. Mike Brown subbed in as acting head coach, and likely for Game 4, and the Warriors aren’t sure when Kerr will return to the sidelines.

Save for Kerr’s lone repeat offense in 2015, we couldn’t find another instance in recent memory of a coach removing his sports coat during a game. It is unclear if Kerr will be fined for undressing, but the league probably could do so if it chose.

That’s thanks to none other than Stan Van Gundy, who set the precedent in 2010 and had a rule nearly named after him. After all, the then-Orlando Magic coach used to sport turtleneck sweaters and collarless shirts underneath his jackets, one of the boldest fashion statements a coach has ever graced an NBA sideline.

In September 2010, the league had enough.

The NBA implemented new rules that mandated collared shirts underneath its coaches’ sports jackets, according to Yahoo’s Trey Kerby citing an AP report. Ties were not made mandatory, as Stein dug up, but the traditional suit look was. Orlando’s then-CEO, Bob Vander Weide, was so receptive to the rule change he had tailors fit Van Gundy and other front office members, per Kerby.

“I want them to at least name the rule after me,” Van Gundy said, per Kerby. “Somebody has their Bird rights. Larry Bird got that rule named after him. I want it to be the Van Gundy Rule.”

The rule change has lived ever since, and it’s given us some of the best-dressed moments in the history of our league, like the time Derek Fisher wore all-black in his first game coaching against Matt Barnes.

The rule change also gave life to this Reddit r/nba thread, lauding Phoenix Suns coach Earl Watson for his style and championing his legitimacy as best-dressed coach in the NBA. The pictures on that Reddit thread do Watson much more justice than the ones we have on file.

So while Van Gundy’s past wardrobe blunders may have caused Kerr to break a league policy, it’s also had its trickle-down effects on the NBA’s coaching fashion sense.

Hopefully, the league looks past his offense on grounds of his ailment.