Age is just a number, unless you happen to be an NBA draft prospect, and Steve Kerr has a few thoughts on that. The Golden State Warriors head coach decided to take a jab at the league’s draft-night thinking while explaining how rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, who was 23 when the Warriors drafted him in June, was still on the board at No. 11.

Kerr’s comments are making the rounds this weekend, with Lendeborg coming off a start in Friday’s 112-95 comeback win over the Los Angeles Lakers. The coach had a sly verdict on his rookie’s long road to the NBA: “He was his own worst enemy.”

However, the joke was on the league, not on Lendeborg.

Steve Kerr Makes the Case That Age Cost Yaxel Lendeborg

Kerr’s case starts with what the Warriors have found in their rookie: “Once you get him, and you go, this guy’s 6′10″, 240, can dribble, can pass and shoot, fearless. It’s hard to imagine somebody like that. And then you remember that in the NBA, we penalize guys for being 23.”

Then he dropped the kicker: “He should’ve just come out four years ago completely unprepared, and then he would’ve been the second pick.”

Do the math, and four years before draft night, Lendeborg was 19. He took the scenic route instead, arriving as the oldest first-round prospect in the 2026 class with 112 major-college games under his belt, the last six of them in the NCAA Tournament.

He piled up a nation-leading 26 double-doubles as a senior at UAB in 2024-25 before transferring to Michigan. There, he averaged 15.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists, won Big Ten Player of the Year, and capped his lone season by leading Michigan to the national championship.

That made him a departure for the Warriors, whose previous three lottery picks all entered the league at 19 or younger. James Wiseman went second overall in 2020 after playing 69 minutes of college basketball, Jonathan Kuminga went seventh a year later after 13 games with the G League Ignite, and Moses Moody, taken 14th, played 32 games at Arkansas.

Aday Mara, a center from Michigan, and Tennessee’s Nate Ament, a forward, were both still available, yet the Warriors went with the older prospect this time. “He can play everything,” Mike Dunleavy, the general manager, said on draft night. “Potentially he can guard 1 to 5.”

As for the age question, “I’m not worried,” Dunleavy said, “because he’s not 38.” Stephen Curry, for the record, is 38.

Lendeborg Gets a Front-Row Seat to Steph Curry’s Latest Show

Friday doubled as a crash course in life next to Curry, and the rookie took his lumps. Lendeborg finished with six points, five turnovers and six fouls in 24 minutes, and the Warriors were outscored by 20 with him on the floor.

Curry, meanwhile, poured in 31 points and went 8-of-14 from beyond the arc as the Warriors climbed out of a 38-15 hole after one quarter, a deficit that swelled to 25 early in the second. Lendeborg did chip in during the climb, burying a 26-foot 3-pointer that pulled the Warriors within 76-75 late in the third quarter.

Lendeborg had a close-up view of Curry’s work all night, and his verdict on his teammate afterward was simple: “It was astonishing. Like, dude doesn’t get tired. He dribbles like that all day and doesn’t get tired. It’s like, man, I do a couple dribble moves up and back and I’m done.”

The Warriors, 3-3 and 10th in the Western Conference, are back at Chase Center on Sunday against the LA Clippers, giving the rookie another crack at making his coach look smart.