Thompson: Bob Myers on his Warriors relationships, home and what really matters

Bob Myers and his closest confidants were in the midst of strategizing. Five people were in the room, breaking it down. But this time, the situation just felt more difficult, more dark. The stakes more grave. What’s the explanation when someone dies over this? How do you explain someone losing their life over something so … something like … this? Everything sounds crazy as they plot out loud. But they’ve got to figure it out. This isn’t a kid’s game. This is the serious, grown-up stuff.

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Myers, though, could tell they weren’t getting it. Not at all. Which he understood. After all, his daughters, playing Clue with him and his wife, are 10 and 7 years old.

“We’re talking about Professor Plum being murdered in the kitchen with a candlestick,” Myers said in a phone interview this week. “And I’m explaining to my 7-year-old how you kill somebody with a candlestick. We had to switch it up on the fly. It was more like ‘Colonel Mustard passed away and went to live in the lounge.’ Instead of ‘he was murdered with a lead pipe.’ The problem is, we skipped a step. We didn’t buy the junior version. We were playing the regular Clue.”

Myers has always been the reflective type who rifles through situations in search of perspective. So you can imagine what he’d be like in the middle of a pandemic. Contemplative. Reflective.

These days, he is diving headfirst into family life. They say you don’t miss what you’ve got until it’s gone. In Myers’ case, along with millions of others, what he was missing before the sports shutdown is highlighted because it is so near. The wonder of children. The companionship of a spouse. The rhythm of home. Nine years of managing the Warriors from startup to juggernaut doesn’t offer much in the way of breaks and quality time at home. But California’s shelter-in-place orders, now approaching two months, have been the epiphany the father and husband needed.

“It’s eye-opening,” Myers said. “It’s a new thing, the consistency of being home. It’s a great thing. It’s a hard thing. But for me, I get to be around some formative moments in my daughters’ lives. I’m actually going to be home for a birthday in two days. Sad to say, I’ve missed a few of her birthdays. Previously, when I’m in the flow of work, there was an inability or incapacity to be present. Unfortunately, my wife would be talking to me at dinner and half of my brain is not there. My realization is I’ve got to be more present when I’m home.”

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To be clear, his life right now isn’t all games with kids and family dinner. He’s still on the phone regularly with Warriors owner Joe Lacob. He’s still in constant dialogue with Mike Dunleavy Jr. and the rest of the basketball operations staff. Speaking of Clue, Myers needs to get one on what player the Warriors will draft.

Thanks to all their long playoff runs, Myers and the Warriors have not had time to really weigh the draft. That was going to be the case this year anyway, as their season was ending in April instead of June. But the suspension of the season has given the Warriors even more time to focus.

“You can talk about the draft every day and all day,” Myers said. “That’s the fun part. That keeps your mind occupied.”

Another one of the outcomes of this current climate is the bonding between Myers and Steve Kerr. They’ve been afforded the time to really dive deep on hoop in a way the dynastic life didn’t allow.

It has extended beyond the draft. They’ve paused and revisited everything, talked through the whole bit. They’ve deep-dived on style of play. They’ve broken down every player on the roster in depth. They’ve chewed on the ratio of Stephen Curry off the ball and on the ball, of how much to play Draymond Green at center. They’re re-examining philosophies and schemes, especially with the last five seasons of data and experience poured into the equation.

The Warriors’ basketball minds typically convene in the fall for a retreat together. But it’s usually a concentrated summit right before training camp. During this period, they’ve taken that same dense dialogue and spread it out. They can pace themselves, give the ideas and analysis time to settle. No part of the Warriors isn’t being prodded and examined. They’ve got time.

“We’re in a very socially non-distant job,” Myers said. “A lot of our interaction at work is in person, in proximity. Witnessing, practicing, evaluating. So all that is gone, obviously. But we’re talking about the same amount. We’re watching more film, I would say.”

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“The Last Dance” documentary series running on ESPN, providing the halted sports world with desperately needed fodder for discussion, has brought the spotlight back to the Warriors indirectly. The inside look at the Chicago Bulls dynasty led by Michael Jordan has prompted comparisons to the most recent NBA dynasty.

One of the unique contrasts is the management style of then-Bulls GM Jerry Krause compared to Myers’. Krause is portrayed in the documentary as the main reason the dynasty broke up. His relationship with Phil Jackson, who ultimately coached the Bulls to six championships, was so broken that Krause announced before the 1997-98 season that it would be Jackson’s last year with the franchise, even though the team was chasing its second three-peat with Jackson as the head coach. And even though Jordan said he was out if Jackson was out, Krause didn’t back off of his stance. Krause also didn’t bend to Scottie Pippen’s contract demands after the Bulls star way outplayed his contract and was being grossly underpaid.

Six episodes into the 10-part series, the late Krause’s legacy is being cast as the self-important executive who believed success started in the front office. And if that meant existing in a cold war with the players for a season under the spotlight, so be it.

Krause’s modus operandi appears a full pendulum swing away from how Myers, who underscores the managing in general manager, goes about his job. If the Warriors dynasty was a cake, Myers was the eggs — the element in the mix that holds the ingredients together. It isn’t in Myers’ makeup to take Krause’s so-be-it stance and, as “The Last Dance” suggests, revel in the chance to prove his value. Even when it was clear to many in the organization that Kevin Durant was leaving after last season, Myers was doing his part to keep hope alive by attending to the needs of all parties. He works to build a relationship with all parties individually, then uses those relationships to serve as a bridge. It’s why, even after last season, Durant, Draymond Green and Curry all have their own strong relationships with Myers. Green even declared Myers, who suspended him for a game last season, a lifetime family member in his recent appearance on the “All The Smoke” podcast.

Myers’ way is crystalized in these times. Hindsight plus the pandemic equals an especially lucid understanding of what really matters.

“My favorite part of this job,” Myers said, “or this journey, whatever the hell it is, are the relationships you make and whether you can keep them through all this. Championships are great, the rings and all. But if you can’t pick up the phone, then what do you have? If I can’t — in 10 years, 15 years — sit down and talk to you because we’re pissed at each other, then I lost a part of what we won. Because only a few people were even along for the ride. Amidst it all, we were the only ones going through this. So I try to protect the relationships because those are what I value.

“What you protect is knowing the truth, knowing who you are, knowing your relationship with somebody — because that’s what will last. I’m not saying that’s easy. But nobody’s going to stop me from having a friendship with Steve Kerr. That’s something I’ll work to protect.”

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Of course, that only circles back to his initial point — what he’s been missing at home.

Myers said the coolest thing is watching the lives of his family happening organically together, being around for all the little things. The conversations your children draw you into. The random happenings during the course of the day. Even sharing in the difficulties, the pop-up irritations his wife handles seamlessly while he’s on a flight or in a meeting or in a gym.

Eventually, he’ll be back on scouting trips. At some point, he’ll be again spending nights at Chase Center, tucked in some shadow having a private conversation to address some issue. Like Krause set out to do, he’ll have to show the Warriors can get to the mountaintop again. But that singular focus that’s needed to be great will have to wait.

Because now Myers is loving the sight of his two daughters bonding and taking care of their baby sister. He is appreciating the beautiful struggle of work-life balance. He is listening with his whole brain. He is reminded he has even greater relationships to protect.

“We’ll all go back to work — that would be my hope,” Myers said. “I’ll go back to work. But when I’m home, let’s be home. Work will always be there. When I’m here, I need to be here mentally, because it’s great. That’s what this has taught me.”

(Photo: Andrew D. Bernstein / NBAE via Getty Images)

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