SAN FRANCISCO — If this is one of the best jobs in the sport and Bob Myers is one of the best ever, why did he stand on the podium Tuesday and thoughtfully explained why he’s leaving the Warriors with no real idea what he will do next?
Couldn’t one of the richest teams in the NBA keep every manager it wanted, especially the man who paved the way to the 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022 titles? And shouldn’t one of the most talented and connected executives in modern esports want to stay with a franchise that still has Stephen Curry and that Myers emphasizes is still primed to win whatever it wants?
Well and hmm.
No matter how carefully Myers explained his argument, not all of these questions were fully answered. Yes, he’s definitely weary from all the ups and downs this franchise has endured during his 12-year tenure (one season as assistant general manager, 11 full seasons as GM, and the last seven as GM and president). He obviously wants to clear his head, spend time with his family, and plan his next move. But he also broke down in tears when he mentioned how many times he’d come to the Oakland games as a kid, and he spoke with genuine awe that he was the executive director involved in four flag-raising events.
Why would a 48-year-old professional basketball player give up his dream job now? Difficult to grasp. A bit puzzling.
But then Myers was joined on stage by Joe Lacob, following Myers’ initial testimony and media Q&A, as the full weight of the job and all of its encumbrances became more than apparent. And you could see Myers living it in kind of an underworld, still Lacob’s GM until his contract expires on June 30, but no longer the type to have to deliver wins for him.
“We’re definitely going to win,” Lacob said quite loudly when asked about the new CBA rules, which place extreme limits on big-spending teams like the Warriors. “I don’t care about the rules. We’ll find a way to do this. That’s what good organizations do. You find a way to win the game. And our goal is to win games and win championships.”
Myers nodded his head a few times during Lacob’s reply, something Myers must have heard hundreds of times in different situations and early hours. But Myers smiled too. Something had been taken from his shoulders, and it was no small amount.
To put it bluntly, it’s not bad at all when an owner has very high standards. Owners should say and believe that they really want to win championships and that their employees should understand this better. GMs and fans should love owners who spend as much as Lacob and care as much as Lacob. That’s the winning formula, and the Warriors have won more than most.
However, this also comes with costs. Someone has to put the orders into action and react when something is delayed. Someone needs to fix what frays under so much pressure. Someone has to make sure that the players are good with the coaches, the coaches are good with the managers and everyone else is good with everything. Someone has to bring many different stakeholders together around a common goal. Or hear about it if that doesn’t happen for a season or two.
For the Warriors, that guy was Bob Myers for more than a decade. He advised Draymond Green. He hugged Andrew Wiggins. He thought about how to approach Kevin Durant and then became friends with him. He listened to Curry. He worked with Steve Kerr. He mentored and worked with Lacob’s two sons, Kirk and Kent. And a thousand other things.
Myers came to the Warriors as a young agent who, he said, probably wasn’t qualified for the job. He leaves it as a proven master of the NBA universe, who may be ready to break into the entertainment world, the technology world, or wherever he chooses. Maybe Myers will eventually run an ownership franchise like Pat Riley in Miami or Danny Ainge in Utah. Maybe even more. He can achieve all of that because he’s proven with the Warriors, for Lacob and with this great opportunity.
But there were costs here too. And let his successor beware of that, whether it’s Mike Dunleavy Jr., VP of basketball, or anyone else. That’s great work. This is a powerful organization. That’s why you’re getting into the GM business. It’s also an extremely, extremely hard job and there’s no rest while you’re doing it.
“Part of me wishes I could have been a fan of that,” Myers said during his opening statement. “Maybe I would have enjoyed it more, and I hate to say that, but I might have done it while sitting up there on the upper deck or wherever I was sitting.”
In many ways, Myers was the perfect right-hand man for Lacob because Myers could map out the creative strategies, liaise with everyone in the franchise, and just be on call 24/7 because that’s the job. And similarly, Lacob was the perfect boss for Myers because he provided the money and urgency to make the work pay.
The next GM has to be great to even come close to doing what Myers did here. But the next GM will also have this chance because the Warriors and Lacob offer this chance. And if the next GM doesn’t win, Lacob will tell them about it. While he’s winning, he’ll be hearing a lot from Lacob. That’s the give and take of this job and we saw it on stage on Tuesday.
“We’re going to make the right decision for the organization and hopefully move forward,” Lacob said of hiring Myers’ replacement. “I think we’re getting ready for the draft, free agency and all that stuff, and I know Bob – I’m going to give him the last day until June 30 to be here to see if he knows or not. So he will be here for that.”
Lacob was joking (probably?). Myers laughed, gave his wife, who was sitting in the front row, a funny look, and said, “Yes, that’s fine, yes, I think it will be.”
Lacob later said, “I’ll miss talking to him five to 20 times a day. There are times throughout the year when we don’t, but mostly it’s an ongoing dialogue. I will miss that. The thing I’m probably going to miss the most is that I don’t want to give you any more praise today, but because Bob is such a great person and so smart.
“It’s going to be difficult. We’ve all worked together for a long time and I think it’s going to be very difficult to get used to. But you know, life goes on and nothing is forever. We all know that. Owners don’t own teams forever. Players don’t play forever. We like to think they do. New players come along, get better and suddenly they appear. Maybe Bob has something great up his sleeve that he wants to do in the future. Things change. As much as we wish they would last forever, they just don’t.”
Another underworld press moment for Myers: When I asked him about bringing Dunleavy, his former client and one of his best friends, into the Warriors’ front office in 2019 to prepare him for eventually taking office, Myers seemed to have Controlling the whole scenario went through his head again to find out if that was really the case.
“He’s really good and he’d be fantastic if that was a choice,” Myers said. “But I’d be lying if I thought four years ago, let’s get Mike and he can take over this thing. I told him if that’s what he wants then I fully support him.”
Draymond Green talks to Bob Myers before a game at the Chase Center. (Darren Yamashita / USA Today)
Then with an awkward pause and a laugh, “I said I’ll help Draymond if he needs it.”
Note to the next GM: I’d ask Myers if he’s still picking up the phone in October and November. But I assume Myers will continue to care for this team and be available occasionally, especially if Dunleavy gets the job. Such ties are not easily given up. Myers didn’t work that hard just to end those relationships, and he won’t walk away now because he thinks everything needs to be blown up.
Myers is the first founding character to voluntarily leave this team (if you don’t count Durant’s departure in 2019, which I never do because he’s a whole person unto himself). But Myers stressed that he’s not fleeing a dying dynasty. And Lacob’s will and wealth are a big part of that. If you don’t believe it, believe the guy who’s leaving.
“This team is in great shape,” Myers said. “Joe isn’t going anywhere. He supported me. He gave me … if there was a cost per win metric I don’t know how good I would be because we spent a lot of money because he’s so competitive, because he cares so much. And to have an owner like this who puts his heart, will and money into victory… that’s all you could ask for and it’s not going to change. You have an amazing coach. In Steph Curry you have arguably one of the greatest players of all time and one of the greatest people of all time.
“So the future is incredibly bright. I know some people have said I’m leaving because there are a lot of big decisions to be made. Well, it was even worse. When we started out in the past, there were a lot tougher summers than this one. So I have great confidence in the future and I have no doubt that we will still have a lot of success.”
Do you know who understands all this? Curry, Draymond and Klay Thompson certainly understand that. They all probably would have gone to greater lengths to keep Myers if they didn’t understand exactly why he’s leaving now.
“It’s funny, I talked to Steph for a little bit,” Myers said, “and I was like, ‘I get a feeling you’re not really trying to change my mind.’ He started laughing. He says, “No, it hurts.” But he understands. The people who know me understand. But you can’t take away from us what we’ve done and been through.”
It’s still going on. Perhaps. The Warriors will continue without Myers and he will continue without them. Lacob said, half-jokingly, that he would keep trying to bring Myers back into the franchise – I suspect there’s less than a 1 percent chance of that happening and that Lacob knows it too.
But the Warriors’ run with Curry isn’t over here and now. It is nearing the end of a very important phase. After Myers there will be more descents, individually or in groups. But he’s the first. Because he had one of the best jobs in the whole thing. He was one of the best to ever do it. And as he said goodbye, Myers and Lacob showed us why it’s so great and so exhausting at the same time.
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(Photo of outgoing Warriors GM and President Bob Myers and team owner Joe Lacob during a Tuesday news conference: Eric Risberg/Associated Press)