OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Billy Donovan is trying to accomplish the improbable and lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a championship as a first-year NBA coach, just as Steve Kerr did guiding Golden State to its first title in 40 years last June in his rookie season running the Warriors.

These two have become friends along the way during their drastically different journeys to the NBA bench. Their personalities are polar opposites, too, with Kerr cracking jokes and even stopping his press conferences to give writers time to post important Warriors news to their Twitter followers. Donovan is typically straight-faced and serious.

While working as a television analyst for TNT, Kerr enjoyed getting to know Donovan while covering his Florida squad in the NCAA Tournament and made an effort to keep in touch — even as Donovan began the daunting process of leaving the college game for the next level.

Now, their teams are knotted at 1-1 in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals, which resume Sunday night at Oklahoma City.

“Billy’s a great coach. I got to know him when I was doing NCAA Tournament games at TNT, and I did a few Florida games and had a chance to visit with him,” Kerr said. “We actually stayed in touch before he took that other job in the last couple of years, just on random coaching thoughts. If either one of us had any possible coaching positions that we were looking at, we tended to call each other.”

The Thunder hired Donovan after his successful two-decade college coaching career that included two national championships, four trips to the Final Four and 14 NCAA Tournament berths.

Kerr, on the other hand, had never been a head coach at any level when the Warriors grabbed him from his TV gig. He just won Coach of the Year in his second season.