Two large digitized pictures of Bob Myers adorned a wall behind a press conference table inside Chase Center on Tuesday morning, three hours after the 48-year-old announced he’d be leaving the only franchise he’s overseen. The photographs, taken during a shoot immediately following the Warriors’ 2017 title, showed Myers holding the Larry O’Brien Trophy—a reminder of the Golden State dynasty Myers helped to build.
Since Myers was promoted to GM in 2012, the Warriors have reached heights previously unseen in franchise history. He hired Steve Kerr, drafted Draymond Green, and signed Kevin Durant in free agency. When Durant left for Brooklyn in 2019, Myers was tasked by Warriors executive chairman Joe Lacob with spearheading a two-tiered rebuild, an endeavor made possible, and further complicated, by injuries to Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. All the while, Myers regrouped, drafting Jordan Poole and Jonathan Kuminga and trading for Andrew Wiggins. His resourcefulness was rewarded last spring, when Golden State captured its fourth title in eight years, and his body of work earned him a reputation as one of the best executives in the NBA. But the toll of the assignment ultimately caused him to step down.
“Bottom line is, this job, the one I’m in, and I would say this for any professional general manager or coach, requires complete engagement, a complete effort, a thousand percent,” Myers told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “And if you can’t do it, then you shouldn’t do it, and so that’s the answer to the question of why.”
Myers’s decision comes at a precarious time for Golden State. Earlier this month, the team was eliminated in the second round of the postseason—losing its first Western Conference playoff series since 2014. Green, who holds a player option this summer, is in line for a new deal, while Thompson, who is due $43 million next season, is also hoping for a payday. Jordan Poole will begin a four-year, $140 million extension in the fall, and he needs clarity on his future following a disappointing postseason. Plus, the league’s new collective bargaining agreement is expected to eliminate the taxpayer midlevel exception, which will make it even more difficult for Golden State to round out its roster in the coming seasons. All of this makes next month’s draft, in which the Warriors hold the 19th pick, even more important. And as of Myers’s announcement, no person has been selected to navigate the waters ahead.
“We’ll make a decision [on a replacement] as soon as we can,” said Lacob, who joined Myers onstage midway through the hour-long press availability. “But I want to make sure that we make the right decision, and if it happens in a week, great. If it happens in a month, great. We’ll make that decision through the natural course and have the right process. I think we are preparing for the draft and free agency and all those things regardless, and we’ll be ready.”
Mike Dunleavy Jr., who was hired as a scout in 2019 and promoted to assistant general manager in 2021, is one candidate for the job. Dunleavy was not present for Myers’s farewell Tuesday afternoon, but Kirk Lacob, Joe’s son and another candidate, was in attendance. Several team officials believe Kirk has been groomed for the role by his father, but Joe wouldn’t speculate on who’ll ultimately fill the position. He even suggested Myers, whose contract technically expires at the end of June, would lead the team’s draft room.
“I don’t think we’ve even gotten to that level of what’s going to happen exactly in the next month,” Lacob quipped, looking over to Myers for approval. “I guess he’s in play theoretically until June 30.”
“Support,” Myers responded with a smile. “Support role.”
Whoever takes Myers’s place will have sizable shoes to fill. Myers took on an outsized role unusual for the average team executive. When Green was suspended for Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals, Myers sat with Green in a suite during an Oakland A’s baseball game, across the parking lot from Oracle Arena, as a sign of support. Before last season, a few days after Green punched Poole in the face, Myers addressed the media by himself, speaking for the organization. Several months later, when Wiggins returned from a personal absence, Myers sat beside the 28-year-old during his first press availability upon arrival. Myers’s ability to relate with everyone in Golden State’s orbit helped shield the team from Lacob’s outbursts, heal battle scars, and earn him respect and trust throughout the organization.
“I think in life we all need people who hold us accountable, and he holds me accountable at a totally different standard,” Green said on his podcast earlier this month. “He won’t hold me accountable [like], ‘Oh, I’m the general manager of the team.’ ... That’s trash. He holds me accountable as a man, he holds me accountable as a leader, he holds me accountable from a friendship standpoint.”
Thoughts of stepping down crept into Myers’s head following the Warriors’ loss in the 2019 Finals, a grueling six-game series against the Raptors. Throughout that season, Durant’s pending free agency had been an ongoing theme, irritating teammates, including Green, who called out the forward publicly during an on-court spat early in the season. In the Finals, injuries to Durant and Thompson, who tore his ACL in Game 6, doomed any chance for a three-peat.
“We had been in the Finals five years in a row,” Myers said Tuesday. “That’s a lot. It’s exactly what you want. It’s exactly what you do it for. I had to figure out then what was left. Finals take a lot out of you.
“Four years ago, I thought, Can I keep doing this, and how can I keep doing it?”
So Myers requested help, and Dunleavy, a longtime friend, was promoted, and the Warriors attempted to build another championship team. When Durant informed Golden State he’d be leaving for Brooklyn, Myers engineered a sign-and-trade for D’Angelo Russell, whom he later traded for Wiggins. In the draft, the Warriors selected Poole, James Wiseman, Kuminga, and Moses Moody, hoping to extend Golden State’s title window. Meanwhile, they rounded out the roster with veterans like Andre Iguodala, Gary Payton II, and Otto Porter.
In 2022, the two-tiered plan came to fruition, as the Warriors won the title, beating the Celtics in six games. But this past season wasn’t as fruitful, as Green’s punch of Poole fractured the team before the season even began and the Warriors never fully got on track. That distraction was further complicated by the uncertain future of Myers, who declined various overtures by ownership—including an offer that would have made him among the highest-paid executives in the league.
Teamwide admiration for Myers was apparent following his decision to step down. Durant sent warm regards from Monaco, where the former Warrior was vacationing. Curry, who during the postseason privately expressed optimism he could convince Myers to stay, posted a story on Instagram calling Myers a “friend forever.” Even Lacob tried to recruit Myers back.
“Who knows, maybe he’ll be back with us at some point in the future,” Lacob said. “I don’t know, I’m not going to give up that easily. He may think so, but I’m not.”
Myers may be out of the picture, but winning remains the goal in Golden State. Curry, Thompson, and Green are under contract for next season and, despite the high cost to keep them, are expected to remain on the roster, meaning the Warriors will be expected to contend for a title.
“There’s a lot of pressure. Our job is to win championships, period,” Lacob said. “And I’m going to expect that, we are going to expect that this year, next year, three years from now, five years from now. There’s no point in doing this if you’re not trying to win the championship. No point.”
Myers’s love affair with hoop was cultivated in the Bay Area. When he was a child, his father would buy tickets near the rafters of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, so Bob and his brother could see the hometown Warriors. Three decades later, he helped etch his favorite franchise into NBA lore. Now, for the first time in his life, he has no idea what is next.
“I’ve never really stopped going,” he said. “I went right from an agent to this. Went to law school at night after college. My whole life has been like [that]. Maybe it will be good for me to sit still. I don’t know how good I’ll be at it, but I’ve actually never done it, and maybe figure some things out. And I don’t know what’s coming.”
Neither do the Warriors, who are entering the most uncertain stretch of the Lacob era, attempting to return to the top without the man partially responsible for getting them there.
“It’s not goodbye,” Myers said. “This is just my stop. The train is powerful. This thing is moving. It’s just, I’ve got to get off.”
