Bob Myers Says 'It Wasn't Joy' When Warriors Won 2018 Title with Kevin Durant
May 16, 2020
The pressure of being a modern-day dynasty didn't allow Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers to revel in the team's victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2017-18 NBA Finals.
Myers told ESPN's Nick Friedell that second title team with Kevin Durant "wasn't joy" because "it felt like, 'Well, we just did what we were supposed to do, and great job.'"
Head coach Steve Kerr echoed Myers' comments and compared his experience as a player for the Chicago Bulls during their second three-peat to what the Warriors went through:
"To be honest, [The Last Dance documentary] is just confirmation of what I was saying to our team all of last year and 2018. The whole messaging for the year was based on my experience with Chicago and feeling that level of fatigue [and] emotional toll that had been over the previous four years. ... And so watching this now is just a reminder of how difficult it is to sustain that kind of run."
The Warriors were arguably the best team in the NBA even before signing Durant in the summer of 2016. They won a championship during the 2014-15 season and set a new league record with 73 wins the following year, but they famously blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Durant's first season with Golden State saw the team set a new NBA postseason record with a .941 winning percentage thanks to a 16-1 record en route to a championship.
Things were more difficult for the Warriors during the 2018 postseason, most notably in the Western Conference Finals when they needed seven games to defeat the Houston Rockets. It was the first real sign there were any cracks in the armor of this seemingly unstoppable machine.
The chaotic 2018-19 Warriors season ended with a loss to the Toronto Raptors in the NBA Finals. Durant, who ruptured his Achilles in Game 5 against the Raptors, left the team after three seasons to sign with the Brooklyn Nets last offseason.