In winning the NBA championship on Tuesday night, Golden State Warriors Steve Kerr became the first rookie coach to clinch the league title since Pat Riley in 1982.

In speaking with the press Thursday, Kerr said he received congratulatory text messages from his former NBA coaches Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich, but the one he got from ex-teammate Tim Duncan really stands out. 

"'It's that easy, huh?'" Duncan's text to Kerr read, the Warriors coach told ESPN.

Looking back at this season, there's no doubting Kerr's success. Yes, he inherited a 51-win team from Mark Jackson, but made it even better, guiding the 2014-15 Warriors to a 67-15, the 10th-best record in NBA regular season history.

He helped the development of small forward Draymond Green and shrewdly inserted Andre Iguodala into the starting lineup for the first time all year during the NBA Finals, in which Iguodala was named Finals MVP. 

| CLICK HERE TO SEE TWITTER REACTION TO THE WARRIORS WINNING NBA TITLE |

"It's ironic, but the unexpected thing was that everything went exactly as we hoped," Kerr told ESPN. "That never happens." 

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(Photos from left: Harry How/Getty Images, Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)