Podcasts bring out candidness. But when you’re an NBA owner, apparently, you can’t be too candid.
Warriors owner Joe Lacob was fined $500,000 by the NBA for his comments about the luxury tax on the Point Forward podcast last week, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The podcast, which is hosted by Golden State guard Andre Iguodala and former NBA player Evan Turner and, touched on a variety of topics on the July 15 episode, but it was Lacob’s comments on the “penal” luxury tax rules the NBA has in place that led to the fine. The league forbids owners from making “unauthorized communication regarding collective bargaining.”
“Obviously, it’s self-serving for me to say this. But I think it’s a very unfair system,” Lacob said of the luxury tax. “Because (the way) our team is built, the top eight players have been drafted by this team. We have guys that were undrafted that we found and developed in Santa Cruz. We don’t have one free agent that is not a minimum. Not one.”
Lacob referenced ESPN’s Brian Windhorst’s “checkbook win” comment from after Andrew Wiggins led the Warriors to the win in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, acknowledging that the Warriors were fortunate to be able to turn the departing Kevin Durant into such a key player
“The only guy that you could make a case for, us outspending the competition and not being fair, is we turned Durant leaving into one guy (D’Angelo Russell) that turned into Wiggins, and that worked out great,” Lacob said. “But they all criticized us for doing it and said we overpaid and did a bad deal.
“You can’t have it both ways, you know?”
Lacob acknowledged that he understands how the Durant acquisition in 2016 rankled the league, but pointed out that, “anyone else would’ve done it, too.” But Lacob is a clear believer that teams who draft and develop their own players into superstars should not be financially punished for wanting to keep them.
“I think the luxury tax, you should be paying a high luxury tax if you’re using it to go get free agents and outspend your competition,” Lacob said. “But if you’re developing your own guys and paying Steph Curry what he deserves and Klay Thompson what he’s earned, why am I paying $200 million in luxury tax? I don’t think that’s fair.”
It’s a sentiment shared by some around the association, including former Nets assistant general manager and ESPN front office analyst Bobby Marks. NBA commissioner Adam Silver was asked about this exact issue on the night of the NBA Draft by NBA TV’s Jared Greenberg, and he said he didn’t view it as penalizing the team.
It’s not the first time Lacob has been fined by the league in the last 12 months, either. He was fined $50,000 for saying Ben Simmons’ name on a podcast, even though it was to express that Golden State didn’t have a desire to trade for him. By mentioning Simmons by name, he violated the league’s anti-tampering rules.
