It’s probably fun to be Warriors owner Joe Lacob right now. But in the world of NBA owners, it does seem like he is persona non grata right now.
Lacob spend the early part of this week in New York for NBA’s board of governors meeting, then sat down with Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner’s Point Forward podcast for a wide-ranging discussion in a 50-minute episode, touching on several topics.
But while many were telling tales of his past, Lacob’s present payroll for the Warriors roster is clearly at the front of his mind — and he doesn’t seem to like the “penal” luxury tax rules that the NBA has set up, either.
“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 made reference to 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 that is shared by some around the association, including by 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, he said he didn’t view it as penalizing the team.
But while Silver has to deal with 30 owners with regard to the luxury tax, it’s clear the owner of the NBA champions doesn’t agree with him.
But that’s not all Lacob said to Iguodala and Turner, either. He went deep into his journey into becoming Warriors owner, discussing his previous business moves and his background in medicine. He also said that owning a basketball team was always his goal in his life and broke down exactly how he ended up getting the Warriors over the other bidders for the team in 2010, which included the far wealthier Oracle head Larry Ellison.
Lacob also called the time he was booed by Warriors fans on Chris Mullin’s jersey retirement night in 2012, with fans upset over the trade of Monta Ellis for Andrew Bogut, “one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to overcome.” He added that he carried a prove-them-wrong attitude toward his own team’s fanbase after the incident.
Lacob also said the decision to not use public funding to build Chase Center, but instead stick solely to private financing, was “the greatest decision I’ve ever made.” According to Lacob, the Warriors looked into building in Oakland first but didn’t receive much feedback from the city, which shifted their focus to the far more receptive San Francisco.
He also made note that the chase for public funding in California can take years, pointing to the Oakland A’s as an example of the headaches chasing those dollars can add. And, in the same week that a San Francisco Chronicle story highlighted how Lacob nearly bought the A’s, also may have taken a shot at owner John Fisher, too.
“When I hear, ‘They can’t do it,’ they need to be more creative. They need to work harder. They need to be smarter,” Lacob said of how other owners could finance a new facility privately.
Lacob was also asked about the “two timelines” plan and made it seem very clear that he’s still a believer in the Warriors’ trio of young players (James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody) and had high praise for Wiggins, too. But overall, he seems pleased that the plan they set is working.
“I don’t want to be bad for six years. I don’t want to fall off a cliff,” Lacob said. “So we took a risk that we could win this title in Steph’s … call it golden years — I think he’s got a number of years to go — and we were right, and we did. We won, amazingly. I think we’re going to be hopefully better next year. These young guys will be better. Steph’s still got it — sorry to the rest of the league, but I don’t see him getting any worse.
“I know it was a highly risky strategy, Andre, but it worked, and now we’re really set. We won and we’ve got this great future, potentially. I’m just really proud of what this team achieved. I really hoped that we could do it, but I didn’t know if we could do it, and you guys did it.”
And as for Lacob’s goal as an owner? The self-proclaimed “maniacal” man wants to keep pace with former Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who went to 16 NBA Finals in 33 years as an owner. So far, Lacob’s at six in 12 years.
“That 50 percent rate, I don’t know if we can continue that,” Lacob said. “But I’m sure as hell going to try.”
