WARRIORS ALREADY LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT YEAR.

Amid all the Cleveland Cavaliers chaos – reporters everywhere, family and friends trying to make their way into the NBA champions’ locker room – the Golden State Warriors general manager couldn’t find his desired target. With the Oracle Arena nets from an epic Game 7 of the Finals in his hands, the architect of the crestfallen champs wandered the halls in search of his contemporary, Cavs general manager David Griffin.

Myers wasn’t on the floor, where LeBron James & Co. enjoyed their time in the unforeseen spotlight in the wake of the grandest comeback in league history. He wasn’t in the hallways, where he had to make his way through security guards and fans to pull off the classiest of moves. Eventually, Myers’ mission – strange though it may seem – was complete.

 “They won,” Myers, who delivered the nets to Griffin and thus broke a 52-year-old Cleveland curse, told USA TODAY Sports. “They earned it. So you’ve got to appreciate that. You want to win, but you’ve got to appreciate what they were able to do, and be honored to be a part of it all. I’m just honored to be close to it.

“It was a great game. Like I said, I’m honored to be a part of it in my small way. But hey, it’s great to go to work and feel this much – good and bad. Most people don’t get to feel this much. That’s the good part about it. It’s a sport, and you can compete. But it hurts. Game 7 of the Finals. That’s deep.”

Myers wasn’t the only who spent those postgame moments in a haze. Stephen Curry, the back-to-back MVP who had taken the league by storm these past two seasons, left his postgame press conference with all the lucidity of a drunken fan.

“Um, it sucks,” he told USA TODAY Sports as he headed for the exits.

Does it ever –  for the former champs.
Curry’s struggles alone were enough to make you wonder what to make of it all. After the historic season in which he shattered the league record for three pointers (he hit 402 after setting the standard at 296 the season before), he came up woefully short when it mattered most: 22.6 points per game on 40.3% shooting overall and 40% from three-point range, with 4.9 rebounds on average and more turnovers (4.3 per game) than assists (3.7 per).

But Curry, who tried so hard to combat the force of Kyrie Irving in those crucial late game moments and simply couldn’t get it done, will be back. The question now is who he’ll be playing alongside with.

As Myers finally left for the evening, having swapped his suit for the “Live your legend” t-shirt that he so often wears, he said goodbye to arena workers and colleagues like before offering one ominous final statement.

“My work begins now,” he said as he headed home.

Does it ever – for the former champs.

If ever there was reason to celebrate this kind of loss, the Warriors can take solace in the fact that they have options galore. This failure will inevitably lead to a call for an upgrade, with free agents such as Kevin Durant, Al Horford, Dwight Howard, Joakim Noah et al available if they see a window of opportunity here.

Moves would have to be made to create that kind of salary cap space, with valuable vets such as Andre Iguodala and Andrew Bogut likely sacrificed. But the saving grace, the thing that should make the Warriors feel like such capable contenders, is that they have clearly become a destination station.

While they have eight free agents in all, none of them are part of the Curry-Klay Thompson-Draymond Green core that makes them so magnetic. That trio, if nothing else, is more than good enough to inspire a free agent flocking the likes of which these Warriors have never seen.

Yet truth be told, it was never supposed to get to this point. And if anyone paid the steepest price for the series extending so much longer than we thought it would after four games, it was the one and only Bill Russell.

Because the Finals MVP trophy is named in honor of him, the 82-year-old Boston Celtics legend had to be at every game where this special season might come to an end. But Russell, nearly 50 years post-retirement, is moving slowly these days. He walks slowly and methodically, often with the help of his companion.

So from Game 5 in Oakland to Game 6 in Cleveland and back to Oracle Arena from Game 7, he had to travel back and forth across the country until this deed was done. Russell was a guest of honor a private plan filled mostly with league officials and media members, but there was always a golf cart awaiting him to make the trek just a tad easier. The Warriors wanted nothing more than to let Mr. Russell head back home, but these Cavs just kept coming.

Before tipoff, every Warriors fan in the building seemed to be reading the room. Was their beloved team going to rediscover the magic that made this season such a rollicking hoops ride, or would these Cavaliers come along and steal all the blue and yellow pixie dust?

But at 3:50 p.m., as Curry finished his pregame routine that is its own viral affair every single time, he launched the tunnel shot that long ago became a celebrated staple. Curry, who typically gives up if he can’t hit the 40-footer after four attempts, buried it on the first try then gave his customary dap/hug to his favorite assist man, Oracle security guard Curtis Jones.

“Oh yeah,” said James Young, the Warriors’ do-everything man who serves as stats technical coordinator during games. “That’s a sign.”

Meanwhile, Warriors assistant coach Ron Adams was looking for signs in the most likely of places.

In the days before the the Cavs completed their upset, Muhammad Ali’s words made their way through the Warriors’ internal e-mail chain. Adams had deemed them profound, and so he shared it in the hopes that even the smallest of influences might remind the leaders of this team that heart, above all else, was the stuff that champs are made of.

"Champions aren't made in gyms, champions are made from something they have deep inside them,” the late, great Muhammad Ali once said, “a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina. They have to be a little faster. They have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”

In the end, the Cavs had the will and the skill. Irving bested Curry. James conquered these once-invincible Warriors while lifting a city that knew nothing but the worst side of sports. The NBA, inconceivably, was forever changed.

The Warriors’ work, make no mistake, begins now.