SAN FRANCISCO — As Bob Myers issued his farewell address after a 12-year run in the Warriors front office Tuesday, he was joined by owner Joe Lacob on the dais. It’s also worth noting that Lacob’s son, Kirk, was sitting in the first row for the press conference.
Will Kirk succeed Myers as the team’s next general manager?
Joe Lacob doesn’t know yet, as the news of Myers’ departure was still fresh to him as of Tuesday afternoon.
“I'm not going to comment on that at this time,” Joe Lacob said. “I will say that we do have a very strong organization, and there's a good possibility it could be an internal candidate. But haven't made a decision, so can't really give you an answer. We are going to work on that.”
Kirk, who is in his mid-30s, graduated from Stanford in 2010 and has been a part of his dad’s front office in the 12 years since, going from director of basketball operations to assistant general manager to executive VP of basketball operations in 2019.
While Joe Lacob didn’t explicitly say as much – he made a couple of references to the Warriors promoting an internal hire to Myers’ position.
“What's next?” Joe Lacob said. “We have a good organization and we believe in bench strength. Some may think we don't based on they criticized our bench on the court sometimes. But we do believe in bench strength, and within this organization we have a lot of bench strength and we have a lot of people that are really good at their jobs. We are constantly training for situations like this. You can't always achieve it, but Bob has trained some great people in his organization. I think they will play a great role going forward.”
Another internal candidate the Warriors could consider is Mike Dunleavy Jr., who reportedly represented the franchise at recent pre-draft GM meetings in Chicago. Dunleavy played the first five seasons of his 15-year NBA career with the Warriors and has been part of the front office since 2018, promoted to assistant GM in 2019.
Dunleavy has Myers’ full support, if that’s the direction the franchise decides to go.
“If he wants it, it will be great, if that's what he wants,” Myers said. “But it's his call. It's Joe's call. It's not my call. But if that's what he wants to do, he'll be great. He knows more about basketball than I do. He grew up in it. He was born into it with his dad; he played in it.”
Continuity is king for the Warriors as they try to extend this dynasty run, but it will be virtually impossible to fill the void Myers occupied with his interpersonal skills. Trying to keep everyone happy behind the scenes is a full-time gig in itself.
"I said I'll help with Draymond if he needs it," Myers joked about Dunleavy.
