Ron Adams was in his mid-60s when the Warriors hired him away from the Celtics. Steve Kerr wanted Adams to freely speak his mind the way Tex Winter did in the 1990s with Phil Jackson's Bulls.

“I wanted a truth-teller, somebody to tell me, ‘You gotta do this, and you gotta do that,’ completely unfiltered,” Kerr said. “Somebody whose experience and wisdom made everyone stand up and listen. I knew right then that we were talking to the right guy, and I’m just thankful we have him because he’s been instrumental in all that we’ve done.

“Ron Adams, he’s our Tex.”

Adams is known as a curious thinker and reader with strong interests outside of basketball. Adams is eager to talk big ideas such as philosophy, religion, sociology and politics.