- 16 hours ago
Willard and Dibs react to the reception that a number of Warriors got at last night's Warriors game: players including Steph Curry and the general manager Mike Dunleavy. When is it fair to boo someone in the sports world?
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00I want to play this for you.
00:02This is maybe obvious, and therefore someone could take this as mean-spirited.
00:08It's not.
00:08I actually want to take up for this guy.
00:12So last night at the Valkyries game, the big board and the PA announcer are going around the room
00:19because there was a monstrous Golden State Warriors presence.
00:23Five people got the shout-out.
00:26They were Moses Moody, Will Richard, Gary Payton II, Steph Curry, oh, and the general manager, Mike Dunleavy.
00:37So pay special note to the sound of the cheers.
00:43I bet you can guess which one was the loudest and most positive and also which one was the most
00:49negative.
00:50So this is last night at the Valkyries game.
00:56Brady Jr.
01:01Guard Moody, Moody.
01:08Moody.
01:09We have got Moody.
01:15Oh, Gary Payton, Steph.
01:20And one or two.
01:32Hey, that first one was Mike Dunleavy, and that sounded kind of like a moan.
01:36I didn't even hear it.
01:38I'll play it again, and then Granny pull it down.
01:41Because, yeah, right out of the gate, she goes, Mike Dunleavy Jr.
01:44Here it is.
01:45Mike Dunleavy Jr.
01:50Yeah.
01:51There's a little bit of a moan.
01:52There's some scattered boos.
01:54It's not surprising.
01:56I'm not bringing it up because it surprises me.
01:59I'm bringing it up because I genuinely still don't get it.
02:04I really don't.
02:05I don't know how Mike Dunleavy became the representation for the frustration.
02:13I understand the frustration.
02:15I understand that he is the GM, and so that's where stuff gets directed.
02:21But what if I sort of threw it to you this way?
02:25This is an unfair comparison, but Bob Myers won rings.
02:29Bob Myers, I think, is really, really good at two things, and it showed itself again this offseason.
02:36He's such a great people person that I think he does really well in the room with a free agent.
02:42And I think that Bob did really, really well in terms of managing personalities once they were already in the
02:50room.
02:50Famously, he was the guy that Draymond would go to when things would kind of get out of whack a
02:57little bit.
02:57So I think Bob was really, really great at those two things.
03:01But I think one of the things people point to a general manager to do most is draft well.
03:07And I would argue that so far, not only has Mike Dunleavy probably gotten value out of every single pick
03:16that he's made as general manager,
03:18I would argue that, I mean, he's probably done a better job of drafting than Bob Myers did.
03:27Correct me if I'm wrong.
03:28It depends on how far back you want to go to, like, give Bob Myers the credit for whatever pick.
03:35Like, was he the assistant GM?
03:37Was he the actual GM?
03:38And you always talk about Mike Dunleavy and what picks that he had to actually make.
03:43You look at what Bob Myers had.
03:45He didn't have a lot of first-round picks either.
03:47No, but when he had them, that's when, like, if you're mad right now because the Warriors don't have,
03:53whenever you hear someone go, they don't have any young talent that the rest of the league wants for a
03:58trade,
03:59well, wouldn't you point to the two lottery picks that Bob Myers had that didn't go well?
04:04And if Bob's going to get credit for being the assistant GM, who was Bob's assistant GM?
04:10It was Mike Dunleavy.
04:12I mean, do you know what I'm saying?
04:15I do know what you're saying, but I think that one piece that you, maybe you're not missing it,
04:20but the one thing that I will point out is the GM, it's about the court of public opinion.
04:25And I think about Farhan Zaidi as we look at the San Francisco Giants and what they're currently dealing with.
04:31If you look at what Farhan did, all the trades, the micro moves, the draft picks,
04:37turns out he did a lot better than what people think that he did,
04:41and it was based on the fact that he was an analytics guy.
04:44He was a spreadsheet guy.
04:45He didn't really connect with the media.
04:47He's not a great talker.
04:48And I do think that Mike Dunleavy is a little bit of the same kind of guy.
04:53He's not as analytically driven, but I don't think that Mike is nearly as good with the microphone as Bob
04:59Myers is.
05:00Not even close.
05:01Right.
05:01So when you listen to Mike Dunleavy and you hear him say, oh, you know, Draymond was, you know,
05:06he was never shopped at the deadline.
05:08And Draymond a day later was like, yeah, I was shopped.
05:10And I talked to my wife because I thought we were on the move.
05:12And I do think that some of that is kind of beleaguering Mike Dunleavy where it didn't really hit Bob
05:19Myers the same way.
05:20There's no question.
05:20There's a likability quotient to this.
05:22And Bob Myers is going to be unmatched when it comes to that.
05:25So I think that's a completely fair point that you're making.
05:27By the way, you're listening to 95.7 The Game, KGMZ FM and HC1 San Francisco and Odyssey Sports Station,
05:32the home of the Golden State Warriors and Valkyries, always live on the free Odyssey app,
05:36coming to you live from the Laughing Monk Studios.
05:37You know, we have conversations like this and immediately kind of the pushback is, oh, gosh, you know, what are
05:45you saying?
05:46We're not allowed to criticize the guy, that he's perfect.
05:51And it's kind of a funny retort because I'm like, that's never true.
05:57Nobody is so awesome that they are totally above criticism.
06:02Actually, except for one person, that would be Steph.
06:05If you have a criticism of Steph, I'd love to hear it.
06:07I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but, like, fire away.
06:10But outside of that, in terms of the job that people do, whether it's Dunleavy, whether it's Kyle Shanahan,
06:17whether it's Brock Purdy as a quarterback, whether it's Rafi Devers in his swing, like, whatever,
06:23nothing bats 1,000, nothing is perfect.
06:28But I do firmly believe that I am in a very fair space to say that Mike Dunleavy's current reputation
06:37is out of whack.
06:39Based on his performance, his reputation is out of whack.
06:45He is unequivocally not someone who deserves to be booed.
06:49Like, I don't even, that I don't get.
06:51I don't know if there were boos, but you're right.
06:53It was, I mean, there was, like, just groans and, I mean, there was silence compared to, like,
06:59Moses and Will Richard and you get to Steph and it's like, oh, yeah, oh, my God, Steph Curry, he's
07:03in the building.
07:04And so I do think that, you know, you probably should have put Dunleavy in the middle.
07:08That way, you know, the cheers from, you know, Moses Moody bleeding into somebody else might have been enough to
07:14carry the day.
07:15You can see what they were thinking, though.
07:17What they were thinking was kind of high.
07:19Yeah, it was the buildup.
07:20Not to take anything away from Moses Moody, but he's hurt.
07:23And I think it's also about where they were sitting because Will and Gary were sitting together and literally they
07:29were right behind Steph.
07:31Yeah, exactly.
07:31Moses appeared to be sitting maybe a little bit further away.
07:35I don't know.
07:36Maybe he needed more leg room.
07:37Right.
07:38I don't know.
07:38My question is, where was Pods?
07:40It's like, I guess Pods is out there training somewhere because this was like a it's a pod special.
07:46He's the number one fan and you're in a spot where you're going to clinch.
07:49And so, yeah, but he doesn't live here.
07:52And so, you know, if camp hasn't opened yet or whatever, like makes sense.
07:56I can tell you where Pods is.
07:57He's training in Florida right now.
07:59There you go.
08:00Is he coming on this week?
08:01Yes, at some point.
08:02Don't know exactly when yet.
08:03There you go.
08:05I'm sure he was watching.
08:06No doubt.
08:07Yeah, and I'm sure that he's already like trying to lock in on the playoff games and the rest of
08:11it.
08:12And I'm not sure if you heard the Steph comments about, you know, the Valks in the season.
08:16And he's like, yeah, I hope that their playoff run just dovetails right into the start of our season.
08:21We keep this thing going.
08:22Yeah.
08:23So I think that, you know, you look at Steph and you mentioned this before, like he doesn't seem to
08:28have many missteps, if any at all.
08:31And, you know, Mike Dunleavy, we remember him as a player and he was overdrafted.
08:35And his career here was underwhelming.
08:37It wasn't bad, but he was the number three overall pick.
08:41Yeah.
08:41And if you compare him to Kaminga and Wiseman, well, he had a better warrior career than both of them.
08:46Oh, no question.
08:47That one's always interesting to me.
08:49I know you and I and others in the building and plenty of people listening are old enough to remember
08:56that.
08:56There's also a tremendous number of warrior fans who are not old enough to remember that.
09:04And so I always have questions whenever someone brings that up.
09:08A, do you actually believe that Dunleavy's reputation as a GM is being affected by his warriors playing career?
09:19So, number one, it's the question is, is that happening?
09:23And number two is, if that's happening, is that fair?
09:27Like, I could not find that to be more irrelevant.
09:31When assessing Mike Dunleavy as a general manager of the Warriors, my brain does not even go to his playing
09:40career,
09:41the experience he had here, what he might have said about the fans or the organization or whatever.
09:47Like, I just, to me, that's a, this is a completely new era and a completely different job.
09:54And I just, I don't, I don't find those two things to be attached.
09:58I just wonder, like, how old you have to be to have that feeling.
10:02And, you know, we always go to Mark Grandy, who's our 30-year-old producer.
10:06And, you know, now he is, you know, the assistant brand manager and he's on his way to bigger and
10:11better things.
10:12And Dunleavy left in 2007, which means that Grandy was probably 11, 10 or 11 when that happened.
10:20So, his thoughts and memories of Mike Dunleavy as a player are probably few and far between.
10:25And it was the greatest trade in, like, my history as a sports fan at that point.
10:30Right, to get the We Believe guys.
10:31Because it led to Al Harrington and Steven Jackson.
10:34No doubt.
10:34And so, I guess if you're a little bit older and you remember the fact that he was taking number
10:38three and all the rest of it,
10:40I just think, and I lean your way a little bit as far as Mike Dunleavy and, like, what has
10:45he actually had to work with draft-wise?
10:47Not much.
10:48He got Yaxal at 11.
10:50We'll find out if that is actually any good.
10:52He traded for Jimmy.
10:53And that worked actually really, really well in the beginning.
10:56And then he got hurt.
10:57And so, that's not his fault either.
10:59And so, for me, Mike Dunleavy still gets another trade deadline, he gets another off-season,
11:06and he probably gets another trade deadline before you actually judge.
11:08100%.
11:09And the other thing is, I'm not here today to be like, rah, rah, he's doing an amazing job.
11:15Like, that's not even my point.
11:17I guess my point is, I don't understand where the negativity comes from, the finger-pointing comes from.
11:27Um, somebody just texted in, thank you for doing so, 650, I was at the game, and there were boos.
11:35But then goes on to say, who's going to cheer for a GM more than the players?
11:39I wasn't suggesting that.
11:41But then says, nobody knows who Mike Dunleavy is at a Valkyries game.
11:44Oh, sure they do.
11:45Sure they do.
11:46I'm not saying they all do.
11:48I get that the Valkyries do have their own fan base.
11:52And I know a number of Valkyries fans, season ticket holders, in fact, who, yep, that's what they like.
11:59Valkyries.
12:00They couldn't care less about the Giants or anything else going on.
12:05So, is Mike Dunleavy not as big of a figure at a Valkyries game?
12:10Sure, I'll buy that to a degree.
12:12But to say that nobody at a Valkyries game knows who Mike Dunleavy is is crazy.
12:16Of course they do.
12:17And you, even in the same text, said that there were boos.
12:21Well, nobody boos someone that they don't know.
12:23So, I'm just, I'm trying to figure out where something like that would come from.
12:30Even though I acknowledge it's not the majority of people, but why would anybody right now look at Mike Dunleavy
12:38and be that far down the road of I'm going to boo or this person is terrible at their job?
12:45If you've got issues with the way that the Warriors have constructed their roster, sure.
12:50Sure, sure, sure.
12:51That's all fair.
12:52We can talk it out.
12:53Mike Dunleavy, I'll give you a list of who in this town deserves a boo.
12:58We don't do a lot of booing in this town.
13:00I don't enjoy booing.
13:02I don't buy tickets to boo people.
13:03I don't think it's fun.
13:04But if you want to do, like, show me an act that deserves a boo, I can give you some
13:12people in this town.
13:13Mike Dunleavy Jr. is not one of them.
13:14I agree with that part of it.
13:16I do think that if you look at the Warriors in a vacuum as far as when Mike Dunleavy took
13:21over,
13:21don't look at the moves he made.
13:23Just look at what they've done.
13:25What they've done has not been that great.
13:27You've won one series, and you made it to the play-in twice, and you didn't advance.
13:32And that's not what we're used to before Mike Dunleavy came here.
13:35So it's not to say he's the reason or he should have done this, that, or the third to make
13:41it better.
13:41I do think if you look at it from, you know, afar, from not the inside of grinding every day
13:47over every transaction,
13:48you could look at the Mike Dunleavy era and say, well, I mean, you're not doing what Bob Myers did
13:54when we were winning titles.
13:56And it's too simplistic, but I think that's where people, you know, latch on to that and they boo.
14:01Like, I'll give you, how about this?
14:04Because, again, I'm just not a booer.
14:08But if somebody gets thrown out at first base when a pop-up drops,
14:16they get thrown out at first base because they were walking.
14:18To me, that's a boo-worthy offense.
14:22That's Raphael Devers.
14:23Yep.
14:24If you don't know how many outs there are, it's a boo-worthy offense.
14:28That's Willie Adamas and Victor Baricotto so far this year.
14:32Yeah.
14:32They're professional baseball players.
14:35Look, I don't want to, you know, for some people, they want to make it almost like about not the
14:41sports.
14:42So maybe you don't like the person.
14:45I don't think that this is okay by any stretch, so I'm not condoning this.
14:51But there have been political realm things that have come up in the last couple of seasons
14:58that I guess could lead someone down that road, whether it be what happened with Pride Night
15:04or Nick Bosa with a MAGA hat on national TV or whatever.
15:10Again, I'm going to back that up.
15:11I do not find that to be boo-worthy, but I'm trying to understand.
15:17I'm trying to understand what gets you to boo.
15:20Maybe you're just drunk.
15:21Maybe you're just drunk.
15:22But what gets you to boo and what would get me there?
15:27It would have to be like I'm not running, therefore I'm not trying, or I've done such a poor job.
15:35Like, you can't boo Buster Posey because he's Buster Posey, but if his name was Mike Dunleavy,
15:41then I could understand why you moaned.
15:44Because you hate the team that this person put together.
15:50But I think that he's built up enough Teflon to where...
15:55Of course.
15:55If he was like out there at the Valkyries game, the Giants are here tonight, ladies and gentlemen.
15:59It's Buster Posey.
16:00I don't think that he gets groans or boos, even though his year and a half has been more disastrous
16:05than Dunleavy's.
16:06Right.
16:07But that's because he's Buster Posey.
16:08Yeah, he's built up more credit.
16:10One of the most cherished athletes in the history of this market and also was on the playing field,
16:15giving us wonderful memories as recently as five years ago.
16:19Five years ago, he had an all-star level season.
16:21So, that's different.
16:23But those are the things that, to me, you could at least explain.
16:29I, for the life of me, I'm not here to tell you that Mike Dunleavy's done a perfect job.
16:34But to moan or boo the reputation that I see spill out either on social media or even the callers
16:42that we get on this show,
16:46I'm at a loss for why you would feel that way about Mike Dunleavy.
16:51It's a little early for me.
16:53Like, you cannot love what he's done so far with, you know, the trade of, you mentioned Jordan Poole,
16:59and you get nothing back for it, and that turned out to be a disaster.
17:02But he was new on the job and all the rest of it.
17:04And, you know, the deadline and this summer, you basically did nothing, and now you're running it back.
17:08And you can be frustrated.
17:10But I look at it more from 30,000 feet and see that there isn't a lot that he really
17:15could have done.
17:17He's in a little bit of a spot right now.
17:20Devondre Campbell, that's a boo.
17:23Right.
17:24He walked off the field.
17:25He quit on the team.
17:26By the way, I don't boo.
17:27We were there.
17:28But if the 49ers, if he were to show up to camp and actually get announced on the field,
17:34if you announced Brandon Ayuk, I'm a boo.
17:37A boo.
17:39Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the field.
17:43Brandon Ayuk.
17:44Na, na, na, na, na, na, na.
17:45Right?
Comments