The Golden State Warriors dynasty was forged on selfless ball movement, elite defensive instincts, and tactical brilliance. Yet behind the four championship banners hanging inside Chase Center lies is the critical personal relationships between the front office and the core stars. Warriors’ veteran forward Draymond Green pulled back the curtain on how deep those bonds ran, revealing that he intentionally left a staggering $54 million on the table throughout his contract negotiations to preserve his personal relationship with former Warriors General Manager and President of Basketball Operations, Bob Myers.
While hosting Arn Tellem on his self-titled show, Green revealed that his bond with Myers went far beyond standard executive-player boundaries.
“I love Bob as well. When you talk about connecting with people, and why I say he’s so important to my career… Like, I’ve gone through a lot of things throughout the course of my career, you know, and getting suspended from Game 5 of the NBA Finals. He didn’t watch that game in the arena. He watched that game with me outside of the arena,” Green told the NBA superagent.
During that costly suspension in Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals, Myers chose empathy over punishment. That rare personal dynamic directly altered Green’s approach to contract extensions. Instead of entering salary talks intent on maximizing every dollar at the negotiating table, Dray prioritized long-term harmony with the executive who always had his back.
“Then it comes to negotiating, you know, and it’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, I could fight for the max and possibly get the max my first time up, and, you know, continue to fight for that more. We’re winning championships.’ But it’s that relationship that’s like, ‘No, I’ve spoken to this guy about the business side of this for three years leading up into a negotiation.’ So when I go to my agent — Rich [Paul], or BJ [Armstrong] before Rich — no, this isn’t a negotiation where we’re about to knock them down and drag them out. Like, my relationship with him alone, I don’t want that. Like, I don’t want it to possibly even tarnish that. If that means me taking $14 million less, and then $40 million less, like, I’ll be okay. But these relationships and how you see the business... a large part of that is due to my relationship with him.”
This comes right when Myers himself spoke about his relationship with the Warriors’ enforcer. Draymond Green’s fiery, raw emotional style has occasionally led to on-court friction or public incidents, such as his notorious 2018 argument with Kevin Durant. Managing Green required a unique psychological approachby Myers.
Speaking recently on the Cousins podcast with Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter, Myers shared how direct honesty laid the groundwork for their mutual trust.
“One time, I told Draymond, I said, ‘Draymond, people are actually afraid of you.’ And I go, I don’t know why. He does want to win. If he believes you and he trusts you and you say, ‘This is what will help us win,’ he actually will listen to that,” Myers recalled.
Myers emphasized that Green’s relentless desire to win eclipsed everything else. “Game 32, our team’s, you know, 20 and 12. We’ve lost two in a row. He’s the one that would call me on the ride home. He’s the one. ‘What the f—k are we doing? We got to fix this.’ His care for the team... As far as his desire to win and make sure everything is moving that direction is strong, more than I’ve seen in a player, very, very strong.”
After working as an NBA agent, Myers joined the Warriors front office in 2011 and was promoted to GM in less than a year. One of his first orders of business was selecting Draymond Green 35th overall out of Michigan State in the 2012 NBA Draft.
Green quickly evolved from an undersized second-round pick into a defensive mastermind and 4x NBA champion. Over the years, Green came to view Myers not just as a front-office boss, but as a mentor, once noting in 2018 that Myers played a role “almost like a life coach, or an older brother.”
That mutual respect directly shaped Green’s contract history. The $54 million total sacrifice Green referenced reflects key moments in his extensions with Golden State.
Coming off Golden State’s 2015 title, Green was eligible to push for a full maximum deal. Instead, he accepted a five-year, $82 million contract, leaving roughly $14 million on the table to provide Myers the financial flexibility to sign Kevin Durant in the summer of 2016.
In the summer of 2019, Green opted against waiting for free agency, where he could have commanded a five-year supermax contract worth upwards of $138 million. Instead, he signed a four-year, $100 million extension early, sacrificing roughly $40 million to secure his future without forcing tense, adversarial negotiations with Myers.
Myers stepped down as Warriors GM and President of Basketball Operations at the conclusion of the 2022-23 season. On the Cousins podcast, Myers admitted that the intense personal relationships he shared with Green, Stephen Curry, and Klay Thompson made it difficult to make unfeeling business decisions.
Myers’ departure marked the beginning of structural shifts for the team. While fans question Mike Dunleavy Jr’s handling of the star core, the legacy of Myers’ era remains embedded in the franchise’s identity.