SAN FRANCISCO — It most likely didn’t even cross his mind when Bob Myers left his seat Tuesday night to talk to Draymond Green during a heated moment.
But that in-game encounter was another example of how invaluable the Warriors general manager and president of basketball operations is to the organization.
Myers stepped down to the court in the fourth quarter and helped an irate Green refocus his attention to the task at hand.
After getting whistled for his fifth foul of the night, Green was visibly frustrated near the Warriors’ bench when the coaching staff decided not to use its challenge to review the call that left him with no foul to give with 4:48 remaining in a seven-point game.
Myers, standing behind the team’s bench, got Green’s attention and shared some words of encouragement. Video of the brief encounter showed Green shaking his head side-to-side when Myers started to talk. By the end of their conversation, though, Green seemed to nod in agreement before dapping up Myers and making his way back to the Warriors’ huddle.
After the Warriors beat the New Orleans Pelicans 120-109, Green shared what Myers had told him at that moment.
“He came down, he was like, ‘Listen, All right, you proved your point and you may have been right, but if you stay that way, guys are going to follow you. If you turn around right now and get in the huddle, guys will follow that.
“I got back in the huddle and challenged our guys and boosted the lead even more.”
Green would return to the floor less than a minute later and helped see the Warriors to a 10-2 run before coach Steve Kerr pulled the starters in the epic comeback win.
“Draymond willed us to victory tonight,” Kerr said.
But Myers once again showed what the Warriors could lose if they don’t renew him for a new deal before his current contract expires this offseason.
It’s unclear where contract negotiations stand as of this point. As of late January, the main hang up in discussions was money.
Myers, a two-time NBA Executive of the Year, believes he should be among the highest-paid front office executives in the league, but The Athletic previously reported that he is outside the top five but within the top 10.
Green believes very few — if any — other NBA general managers are as successful as Myers at managing personalities and could do what he did Tuesday night.
“Y’all don’t always get to see Bob’s work other than putting the team together, but he’s so important to everything that we do,” Green said. “I watch this league, GMs don’t keep a pulse on the team like Bob keeps a pulse of this team, maybe two other GMs in the league right now would come down to the bench and say something. And that’s also someone who I have the utmost respect for.
“If Bob comes and tells me something, that’s Bible to me. I’m going to listen to that. But that’s a relationship that has been built over the last 11 years, and that is a relationship that will continue to grow over the next 40 years. For him to come down in that moment and say something to me, you gotta honor that and it was huge.”
Stephen Curry also praised Myers after the game and said the team trusts his perspective, noting that it’s not every night Myers steps down to have an in-game conversation with a player.
“It’s just timely, and that’s something that Draymond responds to because he trusts his point of view,” Curry said. “I don’t know what he said in that moment, but it does go a long way whether it’s in the locker room, at practice, off the court, outside the arena — whatever it is, we respond to what he says.”
The potential departure of Myers this offseason would have a ripple effect on the franchise. Myers has close relationships with Kerr, who’s signed through next season. He also clearly has earned the respect of the team’s dynastic nucleus of Curry, Green and Klay Thompson.
Myers previously said he is “completely focused on this season.
“I enjoy coming to work every day and again, when the season’s over… all that stuff, I’ll figure it out but if I wasn’t enjoying myself each day, I wouldn’t do this,” Myers told this newspaper in January. “I feel good now, we’ll see how I feel at the end of the year.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com