Four new Warriors legends could be honored in the rafters above Chase Center in the coming years.
Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are the obvious candidates. But there might be one more franchise icon who is deserving of a spot, and he's not a player.
Former Warriors general manager Bob Myers, now an NBA analyst for ESPN, returned to Chase Center on Wednesday for the first time since stepping down from his position after the 2022-23 season and received a warm ovation from Dub Nation during Golden State's 125-90 win over the Milwaukee Bucks, which included a special video board tribute and moment with his three daughters.
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In speaking to reporters after the game, Green was asked how it felt to have Myers back in the building and discussed how important the former GM was to the Warriors' success.
"It was great. Bob is, when you talk about this franchise and this dynasty that was built, and so oftentimes it's the players that are mentioned," Green said. "It's Steph [Curry], it's Klay [Thompson], it's myself, it's [Kevon Looney]. It's so oftentimes the players get the credit. But the work that Bob did ...
Golden State Warriors
"It's not (just) putting the teams together. For a basketball savant like Bob, that's the easy part. It was the work he did on the relationships. Every single day being in here, building relationships. From top to bottom. From the best player to the worst ... That's the same guy when I was suspended for Game 5 (of the 2016 NBA Finals) didn't come to the game, he came and sat with me and watched the game. Such a special, special soul and I think we've all been able to learn from him and to see him be celebrated tonight the way he should have."
Green is confident that Myers is deserving of a spot in the rafters alongside franchise greats like Bill Russell,
Wilt Chamberlain, Tom Meschery, Al Attles, Chris Mullin, Rick Barry, Nate Thurmond and soon-to-be honorees Curry, Thompson and Green.
"You talk about jerseys getting retired, his will," Green shared. "His name will be up there in the rafters for what he brought to this organization when no one believed that this organization can be anything. It was a Bay Area native who came back after spending 20 years in LA to take the franchise he watched growing up, that he would go sit in the 200 [level] seats with his dad just to watch a game. It was him that had a vision and a belief that 'I can go back there and lead a charge and take a franchise to the promised land.' The laughingstock of the NBA when he came back here."
Myers, a Bay Area native who grew up in Danville, joined the Warriors in April 2011 as the assistant general manager to Larry Riley. Golden State finished the 2010-11 season with an underwhelming 36-46 record and then posted an ugly 23-43 record the following season.
However, two seasons after Myers was hired, and one after he was promoted to general manager in 2012, the Warriors took off and made deep playoff runs in each of the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons before Golden State's dynasty officially began with a championship in 2015. The rest is history.
"Your goal in life should always be to leave, whatever it is that you're leaving behind, in a better place than it was when you got it," Green added. "And he far exceeded that. He left it in the best place it could possibly be. It is a true, true statement in the character of the man that he is, because it's not easy.
"What he was able to do, he had to manage me often while doing all this other stuff. When it went right, he was right there. Less there when it went right, through. He spent less time with you when it went right. He spent far more time with me when it was going wrong. Most people are the opposite."
Green worked closely with Myers for 11 seasons, and believes he would not be the Hall of Fame player he is today without his former GM's guidance and leadership.
"And I couldn't have asked for a more special person to spend my first 11 years with," Green concluded. "Because if it wasn't for him, I'm not sure where I'd be, where my career would have gone, the things that I learned from him about being a father, being a husband, being a great person. I'm not sure I'm sitting here talking to you today without that man."