Bob Myers fires back at critics of Warriors high payroll: ‘You should be allowed to spend on your own players’

June 9, 2022 World Sports

The Golden State Warriors aren’t just the most expensive team in the NBA. They are far and away the most expensive team in the history of North American professional sports. The Warriors are paying their players roughly $176 million, but as a repeat luxury tax offender, they will also owe over $170 million in tax payments. That’s a total expenditure of $346 million. The Los Angeles Clippers were the NBA’s second-most expensive team this season and they came in at around $250 million. Only the Clippers, Nets, Lakers and Bucks spent even half as much as the Warriors did this season, and the rest of the NBA isn’t thrilled by that.

ESPN’s Zach Lowe reported earlier this week that “rivals are already grumbling about Golden State’s competitive spending advantage,” but as Warriors general manager Bob Myers sees it, his team is merely operating within the confines of the rules. “I think on that point, you should be allowed to spend on your own players,” Myers said in an interview with 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast”. “I mean, we drafted a lot of these guys, we developed them. It’s not like we went out and signed all these guys as free agents and built some team that way. Larry Riley’s the guy that drafted [Steph] Curry, I was here when we drafted Klay [Thompson], we drafted Draymond [Green], we drafted [Jordan] Poole, we traded for [Andrew] Wiggins. Nobody wanted Wiggins, I mean nobody was saying anything then.”