The move to Chase doesn’t change Dubs’ role as Bay Area team, says Bob Myers.
Warriors GM Bob Myers
On the night the Golden State Warriors played their last-ever game in Oracle Arena—resulting in a devastating loss to the Toronto Raptors—team general manager Bob Myers returned to a quiet court after it was all over. “I went and sat in the stands and had a beer by myself and kind of looked up and looked around,” he says.
As a fan, Myers attended his first Warriors game at Oracle when he was 6 years old (he still owns the ticket stub) and had played there as a forward at UCLA before helping to build a Dubs dynasty in the arena’s sunset years. Two weeks after that final night, Myers sat in his Oakland office and reflected on the departure from Oracle and the move to Chase Center.
How do you feel about the move personally?
“I never felt like it would last forever. I just never had that thought. So, now, to see the next iteration of it is exciting. It’s like you love your old car; you love your old pair of shoes; but you know you can’t wear them forever. You can’t drive that car forever. But you’re comfortable in it. It’s got meaning. It’s got something your new car will never have, but you know that change is coming. For me, I just personally kind of embrace it.”
What were you thinking in the stands at the end of that final night?
“The finality of it, the exhaustion of it all. Five years [consecutively reaching the Finals]. Reflecting on all that. It’s probably too much to organize in my head, probably was. It was meaningful, though. It felt okay. The losing is never good. But the ending to the movie—sometimes a movie ends, and you don’t get the ending you want, but you get the ending you need in a weird, crazy way. Still a hell of a movie. Just didn’t have the happy ending.”
How do you respond to Oakland fans that feel like the team is leaving them?
“I would say that I understand, and that means they care, and I would never criticize anybody for caring about our team. That’s what you want, whether they’re upset or happy. The worst thing you get is apathy. But you also say to them, ‘Come along with us.’ Just ’cause we’re more miles away, doesn’t mean we’re gone. We’re still part of this community. We’re still the only basketball team in this Bay Area region. I don’t feel like we’re leaving anybody.”
Do you think of this as a fundamental change for the fans or the fan base?
“I don’t know. I think that’ll be interesting to see. It’ll mean whatever it means, but I think the people in our organization are still the same people, and what they believe and who they are won’t change. The building changes. The 10 or 11 miles distance changes. But the fabric of us remains the same.”
Photography by: COURTESY OF THE GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
