Warriors GM: 'We are not a dynasty'
Although plenty of prognosticators are already prepared to award him Executive of the Year and his team the NBA championship, Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers knows his work - and his team's - is far from finished.
After watching them rampage through a record-breaking, 73-9 regular season last year only to come apart in the last three games of the Finals, Myers knows the Warriors are assured of nothing, even if they did add Kevin freaking Durant to their already-terrifying death machine.
"They don't give you a ring for signing players," Myers told The Vertical's Michael Lee. "In sports, I gave up trying to predict anything. People thought we were going to win the championship last year - and thought it was going to be pretty easy. It didn't happen. I think it surprised a lot of people. I don't think anybody felt we were going to break the record for the regular season. I didn't. I don't think people thought we'd go 24-0. So nothing that happened last year, I didn't think any of that was going to happen.
"I've learned, being a part of this profession, it's accepting outcomes, good or bad. So organizationally, each day, we try to get a little bit better. That's all you can control and hopefully that leads to success. … Last year, we could see the summit, but we didn't reach the top. Now we've got to try and climb that mountain again."
Although their absurd collection of talent figures to make that climb easier on the Warriors than on any other team, Myers prefers to temper expectations after they got kicked down the mountainside this past spring.
"Although we get a lot of notoriety, we are not a dynasty," Myers said. "We did not win five championships. We won one. I think that sometimes people assume that we have this air of success; we really don't. We've had two good years and one championship. So we're reminding ourselves, we haven't figured anything out."
Regardless of what Myers says, there is going to be an aura of inexorability around the Warriors, at least until they show even a smidgen of on-court vulnerability. But even if, as expected, they march to a title this season, Myers has longer-term goals in mind.
"Part of being successful is feeling like you never made it," he said. "Look at the Spurs. I don't think they walk around like their work is done. There is always work to do. There's always things to learn. There's always new challenges. … Some organizations can make that statement. They have had great success. The Spurs are an example of that. We are not in their category. Maybe one day we will be, but we're not now."