Bob Myers says one veteran saw something in the Warriors before the dynasty did.
Appearing on a podcast with Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter, the former Golden State executive looked back on the period before the team’s run of four NBA championships from the 2014-15 season through the 2021-22 season. Myers talked about the job, what he misses now that he’s no longer in it, and the toughest decisions he faced along the way.
One of the sharpest stories he shared centered on Jermaine O’Neal, the veteran who called after Golden State’s 2013-14 playoff exit and pushed Myers to stay the course.
After the Warriors won 51 games that season and fell to the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 7 of the first round of the Western Conference Playoffs, Myers said he expected a different message when O’Neal rang him three days later. Instead, O’Neal delivered a direct warning about blowing up the roster.
"Jermaine calls me three days after we lost, and I'm thinking he's going to tell me he's retired and whatever. He goes, 'Hey man, listen to me; do not break this team up.'
And I was kind of like, what's so great about this team? We just lost in the first round.
And he goes, 'I've been in a lot of locker rooms at the end of a season, and this team knows how to lose.' He said it bothered them the right amount."
O’Neal, a six-time All-Star, retired after that season and finished an 18-year career. The Warriors, meanwhile, turned the page and started their championship dynasty the very next year, in the 2014-15 campaign.
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