Warriors President Bob Myers said there 'wasn't joy' in winning their most recent title, but Kevin Durant feels differently

• Golden State Warriors President Bob Myers said there "wasn't joy" when the team won the 2018 NBA Finals because "we just did what we were supposed to do."
• Kevin Durant — who won his second-consecutive title and Finals MVP award after that series — disagreed, commenting on Instagram that everyone looked "happy as s---" in postgame photos.
• Uncertainty surrounding Durant's looming free agency decision created unrest for the team the following season, and Myers hinted that the "weight of everything, weight of relationships" played a role in 2018.

For many professional athletes, winning a league championship is the pinnacle of their sports careers.

But for the Golden State Warriors, winning the 2018 NBA Finals was par for the course.

In an interview with ESPN's Nick Friedell, Golden State President Bob Myers said that the team's third championship in four years was somewhat lackluster.

"The second time with Kevin [Durant] it felt like, 'Well, we just did what we were supposed to do, and great job,'" Myers said. "It wasn't joy."

Myers didn't ascribe those feelings to everyone else on the winning team, nor did he blame any one actor for the disenchantment he felt after the victory. Still, he noted that there was a "weight to everything" that felt heavier than in years past.

He compared the sentiment to how Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s must have felt while extending their reign for the majority of the decade.

"I'm sure a lot of people felt differently," Myers said. "It wasn't anybody's fault. I think there's just a weight to everything. And so I'm sure [the Bulls] felt that weight of everything, weight of relationships."

Myers' muted emotional response to the victory did not resonate with Durant. The 6-foot-10 sharpshooter won his second-consecutive NBA Finals MVP award in the Warriors' 2018 championship series against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

While the 10-time NBA All-Star didn't respond directly to Myers' remarks, he noted in a comment on Sideline Sources' Instagram post featuring the quote that the team looked "happy as s--- in that pic though."

The pressure surrounding a team as star-studded as Golden State could undoubtedly yield the "weight to everything" Myers cited to Friedell. But the uncertainty surrounding Durant's future with the franchise may have also played a role. The four-time NBA scoring champion's looming free agency decision famously created unrest for the entire team throughout the following season and even soured some of the players' relationships.

The Warriors lost to Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors in the 2019 NBA Finals, and Durant subsequently moved on to join the Brooklyn Nets during the offseason. He has yet to return to the court after suffering an Achilles tendon rupture during Game 5 of that final series with Golden State.

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