Let’s step back from the full-tilt White House heat of the moment and go to the beginning of Steve Kerr’s passage into an increasingly high-profile career of political and social commentary.

Yes, he has continued to coach some basketball, too, but in June 2016, a few days after his Warriors lost Game 7 of the NBA Finals to the Cavaliers, Kerr had some thoughts and a strong desire to speak them. And his public life would never be the same after that.

Remember, Kerr was in great pain and discomfort throughout those playoffs — he missed the first 43 regular-season games that season — due to the prolonged effects of a botched back surgery a year earlier. And this was also days after the mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub that left 49 dead and 53 wounded.

Over the preceding days and weeks, Kerr had some time to think about the proliferation of powerful rifles and guns in America. He also was thinking of his father, Malcolm, who was assassinated...