- Says his philosophy is you need 3 great players to contend. 2 to make POs but 3 to contend. Says Curry and Lee are two and Monta is very good...interesting. Didn't really seem to include Monta. Says he wants to find a great core of 3 great players (kind of what I was hoping he would think/say). - Tom Tolbert says he thinks two great players can get it done, Lacob responds that in his opinion you need 3. Tom says look at Kobe-Gasol, Lacob says well Odom is pretty good. Then Lacob says look at Stockton/Malone. - Ralph asking what happened with the sale in regards to Ellison controversey. Lacob says he has no idea but he was in it from the beginning and kept a low profile. Says they obviously knew Ellison could get it at any time but they remained prepared and did due dilligence at all times. Says one thing he did that other bidders may not have was that he met with Cohan personally and communicated personally rather than through banker type representatives. - Says hes known Stern for years from having created the WNBA competitor league. Stern called him a "tire kicker" regarding buying NBA teams before he actually bought the Celtics. Says he likes to think hes a part of the Celtics turnaround, was at the draft and in he draft war room for the Celts and was close with Ainge. Says he likes the Celtics way of doing it where theres a large group of people making decisions as opposed to one guy giving the yay or nay. - Lacob says hes the lead investor, has most money in the deal. Lacob is the man at the top, representing W's at owners meetings and whatnot. Guber is obviously fine by that. Says they'll announce their ownership group at some point in the near future. - Says he won't rip on Chris Cohan but obviously hes "had a rough go of it and made al ot of mistakes. A lot of bad luck and a lot of bad decisions...history speaks for itself", etc. Says they're going to own in a very different way. - Says he'll be al ot more out there and up front than Cohan. More to come after commercial...
- Tom asks where he sees himself on the scale of invisible owners who are constantly behind the scene to the Mark Cuban end of the spectrum. Lacob says he'll learn as he goes. Says people describe him as low key and not in the press much which is true because he was in a private investment business. Says hes fine with being in public eye. Says everyone asks him the Mark Cuban question. Lacob says he turned down a deal for "broadcast.com" for $35 million investment. Met with Mark and turned it down and Mark went on to sell it for a lot more to Yahoo but says he was right that it didn't work out but Mark made a hell of a lot of money. - Goal is to officially own the team by the end of September. He doesn't really have much control of it though the NBA is controlling it. Says obviously theres decisions to be made with respect to roster and coaching staff so he wants to get in there ASAP. Tom asks if a month is enough time to make those evaluations. Lacob says they're in the process of evaluating. Says he knows fans have preconceived notions and he has preconcieved notions but he won't say what they are. Says where he feels they need to make a chane they'll make a change. - All he can say about GM is that hes interacting with Larry Riley on pretty much a day to day basis. Chris Cohan knows of all their interactions. -Says he plans on being very involved with bball stuff. If he was just a business man who didn't know anything about bball he wouldn't be that involved. Says he believes in hiring management and letting them do their thing but also says he'll be like the CEO of a company, be very involved, says he thinks he knows baketball pretty well and wouldn't have spent all that money not to be involved. Another commercial....
From MTII: lol missed that last part about DLee trade. Obviously he thinks highly of him since he said he was a core piece and Monta wasn't. I'm on and off the phone so I'm missing some stuff. - Says he talked to Nellie on the phone. Doesn't know what hes going to do with Nellie and can't comment on what he would do anyway. Says they'll execute a plan and doesn't know what they'll do yet. Says he has some views and plans that hes not going to share on the radio. Says they won't be rash or hasty. Just missed some more of the interview with a phone call but internet is telling me he said he prefers young energetic coach.
- Says he likes new wave of young GMs but also was "impressed" by Riley's NBA experience. - Tolbert asks what he thinks of small ball, Tolbert says he thinks it can win and he thinks PHX would have won a ring that year when Amare and Diaw (I think it was Diaw) stepped on the out of bounds line and got suspended against the Spurs. Lacob says he doesn't care how they win as long as they win. Says he likes watching PHX/GSW style, knows theres questions of whether that can win. Doesn't really give an answer. "I'm not going to say we're oing to play that way because it depends on the coach, talent, etc." Ralph says "well whatever just do it and it'll make money" Lacob says no lol. - Grew up as a Celtics fan. Family moved to Anaheim, sold peanuts at baseball games as a kid at Angels games, it was pure commission, loved that job, thought about buying Angels. Went to business school at Stanford and been here ever since. Commercial...
- Whats the one thing you want W's fans to know? Loyal fans make him want to "do his damndest" to reward the fans, give them hope, build a team thats competitive and has a chance to win. - Says you can't be in the business of owning a bball team if your goal is profit. Its supposed to be about fun, something to be proud of, something to look back on and enjoy. Says hes proud to wear the ring he got from wen the Celtics won. Says if you're in it for profit there's a lot of other ventures you should get int that'll make you a lot more money. - "Are we going to win a championship next year? No. We're going to struggle to make the playoffs" Damn this guy is realistic lmao. At least he seems to be on the same page as us.
I think David Lee is coming on later. From what I've heard of him in interviews he doesn't say much of interest. Main points to take from Lacob interview: - Seems like he had some say in the Lee trade and seems to think highly of him. - Doesn't think that highly of Monta? - Likes young, energetic coaching. - Said repeatedly he would be very involved when Ralph was pressing him about a GM type of person. - Talks to Riley on a daily basis we can assume this has been the case since it leaked that Lacob had won the bid and thus the CJ trade, Morrow trade, Pargo, Lin, etc. were approved by him. - Philosophy: Team decisions are made by a group. On the court he wants to establish a core of 3 great players and build from there. - Didn't seem very opposed to smallball, I get the impression hes kind of leaving the style of play up to the discretion of his coach. - Very realistic saying "we're going to struggle to make the playoffs next season". A far cry from the sugar coating of the Cohan regime.
Thanks for posting all that, Run. Love his answers to everything, if he's being sincere (being a PR blowhard is Guber's job, so I believe he is) I'm very optimistic about the Warriors future. It really sounds like we are getting an owner with a plan. And I'm totally aligned with his views on Monta, a very good player but not necessarily a pillar to build on as Curry and Lee are.
Lacob was on Chronicle Live earlier. It is on the csn website. It is also coming up soon on tv after the giants post game stuff.
Here's a link to the KNBR interview http://knbr.com/OnKNBR680/RazorandMrT/tabid/595/Default.aspx The CSN Bay Area Warriors site with the Chronicle interviews is here http://www.csnbayarea.com/pages/warriors I've just watched the Chronicle interviews and am in the middle of listening to the KNBR interview. What I learned from the Comcast interview is that Lacob was the only one to meet with Cohan supposedly and they spent four hour together when Lacob asked, "What is it going to take to get the team?" They then came to an agreement and then put it in paper as quickly as possible before anyone else can come in. So maybe Cohan really did not want to sell the team to Ellison, or maybe he wanted to get it done with quickly. It still seems kind of fishy, if it was an auction sale. I wonder if the league would veto this sale. or what kind of possibilities there could be - perhaps not high, but it's the Warriors. Overall though, Lacob seems like he'll be a decent owner. He will not go into the luxury tax but says that the upcoming bargaining negotiations may completely transform the whole salary cap rules with a hard cap. He's really high on Lee in both interviews too. He's also been a season ticket holder for many years. He's definitely going to remain a fan and will be at the games front row. He's also not saying anything about the coaching/GM or any detailed basketball decisions.
Really enjoyed watching his interview. My goodness... he said more in 2 minutes than Cohan did his entire career... I like how intelligent he sounds, how honest he sounds, and especially how connected to the fans he sounds.
I still think that Cohan's "number" as TK put it was $450 mil and Larry didn't want to pay it, he wanted to bargain. Sounds like Cohan told Lacob $450 is what it took to get the team and Lacob went for it.
Absolutely. It was just weird how he put it that once he got that value they seemed extremely set on getting it on paper and keeping others from countering. But it does not seem like Ellison is complaining too much, so maybe it won't delay the team's sale. If anything it just shows that he know how to get what he wants.
I wasn't encouraged by Lacob mentioning he wouldn't go into the luxury tax but says "winning is the most important thing." Well, if there comes a point when you have to go into the luxury tax to win (a championship), is he willing to make that step? It was a very confusing statement and Steinmetz's question wasn't confusing at all. I think Lacob made a valid point that the CBA may be completely different next year but he seemed pretty adamant that going into the luxury tax is something he's unwilling to do, all while admitting that the teams that go deep into the playoffs are teams that pay the luxury.
I think most owners say this and if it would mean going over the lux tax to win a championship, then Lacob should do it as long as he had the revenue stream. Look at Boston, they're spending a lot of money to win another championship. They've been rejuvenated. For now, it means the Warriors won't spend much unless it involves a trade. It could be another explanation for why he got Pargo instead of Watson. And Lacob could have been behind not matching Morrow. Lin may have been more a PR move than the #2 backup PG. I expect they're waiting to see how much Amundson, Tolliver and George gets, but Lacob could surprise. It's refreshing to see and hear Lacob talk about these things as opposed to Cohan.
Yeah, I agree. If the Warriors had the talent AND the record AND the ability to go deep into the playoffs, I think it would warrant going into the luxury. With all those things combined, Lacob would be making bank.
I got the impression that we're maintaining that upcoming cap flexibility because Lacob wants to find the third core player. Hes realistic in thinking this team will struggle to make the POs, seems like the first step he wants to make aside from establishing a coach/GM is to find that last core player then start fillinf in the rest of the club. Seems like we're bargain hunting for the time being with the Watson and Morrow deals but then why would we sign Pargo to a two year deal?
Pargo is still cheaper than Watson or Morrow would have ever been. That doesn't make it right, but it kind of makes it OK.
