Barkley believes Dubs’ ‘incredible’ GM Myers deserves more credit originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Draymond Green and Charles Barkley have been known to bark at each other in public, partly because each knows the other will respond. The disagreements can be highly entertaining.
There is, however, at least one opinion in which they are in total agreement: Warriors general manager Bob Myers is a master at handling his many tasks.
“The Warriors are a great team,” Barkley said in a recent conversation with NBC Sport Bay Area from the American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course. “Bob Myers has done a fabulous job. He won the Finals for those guys this year, going out and getting Andrew Wiggins. He was the second-best player. Jordan Poole. Otto Porter.
“So, Bob Myers was the second-best thing to happen to the Warriors since Steph Curry the last few years.”
After the Warriors crushed the Cavaliers in the 2017 Finals, Green grabbed the mic at the parade in Oakland and uttered seven words that will live forever in franchise history:
“Can somebody give Bob some f—–g credit?”
Since taking over as GM 10 years ago, Myers has overseen rosters that have reached the playoffs eight times, reaching the NBA Finals six times, winning four championships.
Along the way, the front office helped Curry earn two MVP awards. Sent as many as four players to the All-Star Game. Drafted Draymond. And in 2016 lured Kevin Durant, the most coveted free agent on the market, to the Bay.
“They’ve done a tremendous job,” Barkley said. “They got a great organization. They got great players. The general manager, what he’s doing is incredible.”
It’s apparent that Barkley admires the moves Myers made to rebuild the Warriors after seeing Klay Thompson sustain a torn ACL in the 2019 Finals and, a couple weeks later, watching Durant depart for the Nets.
Once he was informed that KD was leaving for Brooklyn, Myers in a matter of hours, engineered a process by which Durant’s departure was via sign-and-trade, with D’Angelo Russell coming to the Warriors. The package doesn’t happen unless Myers gets KD, Russell and the Nets to sign off. They did.
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Russell all along was what front offices refer to as an “asset.” Seven months after he arrived, Myers flipped D-Lo to the Timberwolves, getting Andrew Wiggins and a future No. 1 draft pick in return.
“I’ve…