Bob Myers was the Warriors general manager for 12 years, so he saw all the highs and lows during that time and one game was so emotional for him that he couldn’t bear to sit through it.
The now ESPN analyst recently opened up about just how emotionally taxing the job was.
“There’s a helplessness to it, right?” Myers told Adrian Wojnarowski on The Woj Pod. “I pride myself on never … I think one time in 12 years did I leave a game because it was too much emotionally. I think it was a Finals game in Oakland. I’m not proud of it, but I’m sure GMs or other people would understand. Some GMs do it all the time.
“I know Jerry West, that was his habitual method for dealing with it. I realized I’m in this job, I’m going to be in the building for whatever happens, good, bad. Because if something great were to happen, which I was lucky to see a lot of that, I want to see it. I don’t want to be in the parking lot or away when something really good happens and feel like ‘This is what we do it all for and I missed it.’ So you have to risk dealing with the pain if you lose.”
Myers likened the situation to the movie Moneyball, which followed the stories of the baseball team, Oakland Athletics, in the early 2000s.
The Athletics GM was a man named Billy Beane, who couldn’t watch the team’s games because he was so heavily invested.
“That movie is so good at characterizing the life of a general manager,” Myers said. “When he’s in the car turning his radio on and off. And lot of people watching the movie are probably thinking ‘That isn’t real.’ Ask any general manager in any sport, ‘Is that real? Is that something that happens?’ And it absolutely does.
“When he’s in the weight room and like ‘Text me if anything happens.’ It’s like the torturous way of living and going through it. But there’s nothing like the adrenaline of the job. But certainly that movie was so good at showing an inside life of it.”
Myers helped to build a dynasty at Golden State, since he was part of four championships during his time there.
Watching from the sidelines as an ESPN analyst would no doubt be miles less stressful for the 48-year-old.
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