Bold claim: Wichita State hoops run deeper than a simple fan club—it shapes the culture around one of the NBA’s most high-profile franchises. Now, let’s unpack how Steve Kerr’s Warriors and Wichita State’s legendary footprint intersect, and why this story keeps resurfacing.
Steve Kerr has earned nine NBA championships, guided a modern basketball dynasty, and weathered relentless daily pressures with the Golden State Warriors. Yet, in Memphis on a recent Wednesday night, you could sense Kerr is near his limit—facing a topic that won’t quit.
“If I have to hear one more word about Gene Smithson and Aubrey Sherrod and Cliff Levingston…” Kerr deadpanned, then added with a sly smile, “Raymond is as passionate about Wichita State as anybody.” That line wasn’t a gripe so much as a badge of honor. It came from Raymond Ridder, Warriors senior vice president of communications, widely regarded as one of the NBA’s premier PR minds and one of Wichita State’s most tireless advocates.
Ridder’s bond with Wichita State runs deep enough to become a recurring headline within one of the league’s most scrutinized organizations. Kerr and Ridder trade jabs with warmth and familiarity. Before a Warriors game against the Grizzlies, Ridder slid his phone onto the podium as Kerr spoke. Kerr picked it up to reveal a screenshot: Wichita State’s 65-55 NCAA Tournament win over Arizona, Kerr’s alma mater from 2016.
“My job is to help the team win, and this is an example of Raymond’s passion for Wichita State,” Kerr explained in the pregame session. “He’d rather taunt me with a score from a decade ago than help me prepare for a crucial Warriors game tonight.”
Ridder’s Wichita State roots aren’t casual lore. They trace to childhood and some of the program’s most cherished eras. One of his earliest sports memories recalls watching the 1975-76 Shockers—a squad featuring Calvin Bruton, Robert Gray, Robert Elmore, Cheese Johnson, and Bob Trogele—win the Missouri Valley title and narrowly miss a national title tilt after a one-point loss to a Michigan team that reached the final.
Growing up, Ridder split time between Kansas and California, spending elementary school years in Wichita and Goddard, then returning from California to attend Wichita Northwest High as a sophomore and junior. By then, Shocker basketball had him hooked.
Ridder remembers being a season-ticket holder with his family at Levitt Arena in the early 1980s, watching teams with Antoine Carr, Xavier McDaniel, Cliff Levingston, Aubrey Sherrod, and Greg Dreiling. For a basketball aficionado, those years were a perfect storm of memory and momentum.
That lifelong fandom has helped Ridder build an exceptionally accomplished communications career in the NBA. He joined the Warriors’ PR department in the 1998-99 season and rose to senior vice president of communications during Golden State’s dynastic phase, which yielded six NBA Finals trips from 2015 to 2022 and four championships.
Under Ridder, the Warriors’ communications team has earned the Brian McIntyre Media Relations Award eight times—more than any other team in the award’s 17-year history.
It’s a high-stakes job—managing media for a franchise under intense scrutiny, with stars like Kerr, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and earlier figures such as Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson. That’s part of why Wichita State talk serves as Ridder’s end-of-day therapy:
“I love the back-and-forth banter with the guys,” Ridder said. “Whether it’s Kerr or Steph or Draymond, or Andre Iguodala in his prime. The NBA season is long; we’re together nine months at a stretch, especially during those Finals runs. You’ve got to find ways to have fun and enjoy it every night. Talking about the Shockers and how they’re doing is my way of decompressing.”
After a back-to-back road swing through New Orleans and Memphis, Ridder looked forward to returning home to watch Wichita State play in Memphis on ESPN2. If the Warriors have an off day, he’s glued to the TV. If they’re playing, his ESPN app stays open, ready to share the Shockers’ latest with anyone nearby.
One of Ridder’s proudest moments came during Wichita State’s historic 35-1 season, when he boasted about the Shockers so often that Curry himself riffed in a postgame session, quipping, “Only one team never loses—and that’s Wichita State.” Ridder’s smile said it all.
Now, Ridder finds fresh material as Wichita State surges late in the season, winning eight of their last ten and climbing to second in the American Conference standings. Attendance is ticking upward, and Ridder sees momentum building—fans returning to a program that, when firing on all cylinders, creates one of college basketball’s best atmospheres.
So when Kerr wrapped up a postgame session after a 133-112 win over the Grizzlies by thanking the Warriors’ beat writers who traveled with him, Ridder quickly pointed to an additional media voice in the room—a Wichita-based reporter who adds another layer to the ongoing Shocker chatter.
Kerr didn’t miss a beat. “Is he going to ask a Greg Dreiling question? Cheese Johnson?” he teased, rolling out a line that reminded everyone of Ridder’s years of Shocker lore and the enduring bridge between Wichita State and the Warriors.
In short, Wichita State isn’t just a college memory for Raymond Ridder—it’s a living, daily dialogue that keeps finding new rooms in the Warriors’ orbit, and it’s a reminder that great stories in sports often travel far beyond their original courts.
