Bob Myers receives too much Warriors dynasty credit, per Chris Russo
Mad Dog claims Myers receives too much credit for Dubs dynasty originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Bob Myers has been the talk of the NBA over the last 24 hours after announcing he will step down as Warriors general manager and president of basketball operations on Tuesday.
While some fans predict that Myers’ June 30 departure will be the beginning of the end of the Warriors dynasty, others believe the spotlight incorrectly has shined too bright on the 48-year-old.
As ESPN's Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, Stephen A. Smith and JJ Redick debated whether Myers is receiving too much credit for the Warriors dynasty, Russo didn’t hesitate with his response.
“Oh god, absolutely. Absolutely,” he said Wednesday morning on ESPN’s “First Take." “If [current basketball executive and former player] Jerry West didn’t draft Kobe [Bryant] and [Shaquille O’Neal], if West didn’t bring in Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] and Magic [Johnson], would we go out there and go crazy?
“The two best players on [the Warriors], [Myers] had nothing to do with. Larry Riley selected them. Larry selected Curry with the seventh pick and then selected Thompson with the 11th pick [in 2011]. He wasn’t the GM. Those two guys, that’s the rock of the team.”
Myers was the first-year assistant general manager when the Warriors drafted Thompson and was expected to learn from Riley for at least a couple of years. However, Myers was promoted to general manager the very next year.
While he can’t take credit for selecting Curry or Thompson, Myers drafted Draymond Green to complete the Warriors' Big Three and help the team become NBA champions once again after 40 years.
But there’s one more significant player who joined the Warriors on Myers’ watch. Despite NBA superstar Kevin Durant helping the Warriors reach three consecutive NBA Finals and win two, Russo still doesn’t believe Myers had anything to do with that.
“Don’t let me hear about Durant because Durant came over there because he wanted to play with Curry. He was sick of losing to Golden State,” Russo said. “And one thing about [Warriors coach Steve] Kerr, everybody knew Kerr was going to be a great coach, I would have hired him too. … So I’m supposed to give him credit because he hired Kerr? I would’ve hired Kerr! I’m not a GM.
“So we’re going to wax poetic on a Wednesday morning about Bob Myers when his two Hall of Fame players he had nothing to do with? … I think he’s overrated.”
Redick and Smith strongly disagreed with Russo, adding that they believe Myers is receiving the "proper amount" of credit. Redick said that sometimes it isn't about the transactions that happened, but rather the ones that didn't. He used the Warriors refraining from trading Thompson to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kevin Love as an example.
RELATED: Would Myers still step down if Warriors repeated as champs?
And even after Durant left Golden State for the Brooklyn Nets in 2019, Redick believes Myers' relationship with Durant helped them agree to do a sign-and-trade which landed the Warriors D'Angelo Russell which later became the trade that brought Andrew Wiggins to the Bay.
"Really what this is about and why Bob Myers deserves his flowers and deserves his credit is because of how tumultuous the NBA is in general and how hard it is to win and how hard it is to win year after year after year," Redick said. "Bob Myers is about managing people and relationships. He’s an excellent communicator, he’s empathetic.
"Those are his superpowers. It’s the person he is. It’s not about the transactions."
While the conversation got heated between the three, they did agree on one thing: The Warriors can win another championship without Myers.
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