Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob has informed fellow owners of a deal he’s considering with Goldman Sachs to raise up to $250 million to manage coming expenses, sources told ESPN. Other owners are investigating opportunities to raise capital as well, ownership sources said, with some pursuing legal action against insurance companies that have denied coronavirus pandemic claims.
Joe Lacob Rumors
Wes Goldberg: Bob Myers says that spending big this summer will “depend on the economics” but that owner Joe Lacob has always supported spending if the team has a chance to win. “We have an ownership group that’s aggressive … resources have always been a huge positive.”
Warriors majority owner Joe Lacob has long insisted on spending big to win big, but he might soon have to rethink that mentality. The NBA shutdown has already had significant financial repercussions for Golden State, which, by not playing its final seven home games, will miss out on at least $25 million at the gate alone. There is also the revenue the Warriors will lose from the numerous Chase Center concerts and events that have been canceled. But before Golden State can know just how much the shutdown will hurt its bottom line, it must see how much the salary cap drops.
According to a league source, Golden State is unlikely to let a drop in the cap change how it approaches roster-building. Lacob realizes that with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green all in their early 30s, the Warriors might only have a three- or four-year window to win another title. Even if it requires a massive luxury-tax burden, Golden State will do what it can to capitalize on the rest of its core players’ prime years. Anything else would go against what this ownership group has come to represent.
Statement from Warriors Co-Executive Chairmen Joe Lacob and Peter Guber: As Chairmen of the Golden State Warriors organization, and as citizens of our country and members of the community, we are resolute in our belief that our collective attitude and aptitude around race relations must be for real change now. The inequity and intolerance that permeates our society must stop! We are at a tipping point in our national race relations and we all must take the leadership responsibility for creating real and sustainable change. We all must align our feet, tongue, heart and wallet as the only way to accomplish this imperative.
The 13-year-old girl wasn’t quite sure what was happening when her mother dropped her off at a boarding school for orphans in rural Pennsylvania. It was summer 1981, and all Nicole Lacob knew was that her single mom could no longer provide for her in Washington. For the next two years, Lacob milked cows twice a day at a dairy farm just down the road from the Hershey’s chocolate factory, wore overalls and struggled to reconcile feelings of abandonment. To this day, Lacob has flashbacks of that unsettling period whenever she smells chocolate. They’re a reminder that, if not for the generosity of some key people, her life might have gone a different direction. As president of the Warriors Community Foundation, Nicole — the wife of Golden State Warriors majority owner Joe Lacob — supports the type of subsidized lunch and after-school programs that she once relied upon as a kid.
A sponsorship group led by Uber and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors has secured $600 million in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) debt that was originated by J.P. Morgan Chase in order to refinance the new Chase Center Towers in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood, according to ratings agency analysis of the transaction.
The Golden State Warriors — under the ownership entity GSW Sports, led by the team’s majority owner, chairman and CEO Joe Lacob — and Uber Technologies each have 45 percent interests in the joint venture, while Pasadena, Calif.-based real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities owns a tenth of the partnership. The group was formed in March 2018.
When Warriors fans booed Joe Lacob on Chris Mullin night after you were traded, how did you feel when you saw that? Ellis: I mean, to be honest with you, I felt happy and sad at the same time. I was happy that they did that and they supported me my whole life and that’s one reason why I love the Bay Area, I love the fans. I still got people in the organization I love. But it was also sad to me because it was Chris Mullin’s night, and he deserved to receive that accomplishment and everything to be pinpointed on him for that night. But, I mean, it was happy and sad at the same time.
JA Adande on Michael Jordan: “He can’t compete with the Warriors and the Joe Lacob’s and the Peter Guber’s and all these tech guys that are coming in. He can’t compete in that realm. Financially — as successful as he’s been — this is a whole different level that these tech guys and these venture capital guys are playing at. “And it frustrates him to no end that he can’t play at their level, when his whole life he’s used to playing at levels higher than everybody else. He can’t beat them in this realm.”
JA Adande on Michael Jordan: “He can’t compete with the Warriors and the Joe Lacob’s and the Peter Guber’s and all these tech guys that are coming in. He can’t compete in that realm. Financially — as successful as he’s been — this is a whole different level that these tech guys and these venture capital guys are playing at. “And it frustrates him to no end that he can’t play at their level, when his whole life he’s used to playing at levels higher than everybody else. He can’t beat them in this realm.”
Warriors keeping facilities closed
The NBA reportedly will allow teams to open facilities in areas where coronavirus-related social distance restrictions have been eased, but the Golden State Warriors’ facilities will remain closed as long as the City of San Francisco keeps its ordinances in place, league sources told NBC Sports Bay Area on Saturday.
The Warriors — who haven’t played a game since March 10 — will continue to adhere to the guidelines set by San Francisco Mayor London Breed and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Breed was among the first city leaders to enact social-distancing measures, banning all non-essential travel on March 16, despite San Francisco not having any known coronavirus cases at the time. Three days later, Newsom followed suit, enacting social-distance laws statewide. On Friday, Breed said she’d “very likely” extend the measure in San Francisco past the current May 3 date.
Guber, the Warriors’ co-executive chairman and founder of Mandalay Entertainment, told USA TODAY Sports he had varying talks in recent years with business partner Mike Tollin, as well as with Warriors majority owner Joe Lacob, and Warriors president and chief operating officer Rick Welts about the idea. The Warriors decided against having a camera crew embedded with the Warriors as the Bulls allowed during the 1997-98 NBA season to capture their sixth NBA championship in eight years. “Once you do that, you actually affect the outcome of other things,” Guber said. “Turning the camera on with an expectation that you’re going to get to a particular point with a sports team or career or something like that? It’s a dangerous business. It’s hubris.”
Guber, the Warriors’ co-executive chairman and founder of Mandalay Entertainment, told USA TODAY Sports he had varying talks in recent years with business partner Mike Tollin, as well as with Warriors majority owner Joe Lacob, and Warriors president and chief operating officer Rick Welts about the idea. The Warriors decided against having a camera crew embedded with the Warriors as the Bulls allowed during the 1997-98 NBA season to capture their sixth NBA championship in eight years. “Once you do that, you actually affect the outcome of other things,” Guber said. “Turning the camera on with an expectation that you’re going to get to a particular point with a sports team or career or something like that? It’s a dangerous business. It’s hubris.”
“With their ages,” Lacob said, in reference to Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green, all now in their 30s, “we’re in a certain window of opportunity and we’d certainly like to take advantage of that window of opportunity. So that was our plan. And still, until further notice, is our plan for next year and the next few years. However, a lot of things could change and we’re going to have to adjust just like every other team has to adjust to whatever the new world is in the NBA. It’s so up in the air right now that it’s just very hard to make a comment to you that would bear any resemblance to reality.” There’s a hesitancy in Lacob’s public messaging which you rarely hear. It’s understandable. Across every sector of our world, those who have long been in power aren’t in control right now. The virus is. Even the best-laid plans are in danger of getting scrapped.
Anything related to Kevin Durant tends to make headlines and Lacob did it again by delivering a new theory about Durant’s exit from the Warriors last July. “This is really an odd thing to say, but him leaving when he did may have turned out to be the right thing,” Lacob said, adding a needed explanation. “For him, certainly, I want him to have a good career, enjoy himself. He felt it was obviously not the right thing to stay. He wasn’t quite comfortable. I can’t explain why. I don’t know why. But for whatever reason, he moved on. But he wouldn’t have played this last year. He was injured. We would’ve had a huge payroll as a team. Maybe this is the best thing. We were able to start a rebuild a little bit earlier than we otherwise might have. Maybe it’ll prove to be the right thing in the long run that that occurred.
Joe Lacob: I’m an optimist. I always look at things at what’s the positive in the situation. Yes, he left. That’s negative. But the positive is we got a chance to move forward quicker and to move into the next phase of what we’re doing.”
Lacob then delivered a minor peek into their decision-making process, even admitting that a trade down is a possibility that’s been discussed. “I think there are some players who are more ready than others, whether they’ve played more than one year in college,” Lacob said. “I think there are some who could be more helpful. Whether they are the right guys to fit into our long term is something we’ll have to evaluate. We’re gonna look at all scenarios. Honestly, I’m not gonna hide this. We’re gonna look at drafting someone at our position. Maybe we trade down. That’s a possibility. I’m not saying it’s preferred or not preferred. I’m just saying it’s something we have to look at.”
Warriors trading down in the draft?
“We’re gonna look at all scenarios,” Lacob explained. “Honestly. I’m not gonna hide this — we’re gonna look at drafting someone at our position. Maybe we trade down — that’s a possiblity. I’m not saying it’s preferred or not preferred. I’m just saying it’s something we have to look at it. We’re gonna look at all options.”
“We’ve never spent more time — as a group — on the draft as we have this year,” Lacob said. “Obviously, we have a lot more time to do it. I have watched video probably of all the top players. I’ve watched interviews, I’ve watched high school highlights, AAU highlights. We had a Zoom call the other day where I think we had 17 people on that call talking about the draft and how we’re approaching it and what the next steps are. We’ve got no excuse in terms of not having enough time.”
Will the NBA’s indefinite suspension limit what the Warriors do with the checkbook in the offseason? “We’re looking at all of those questions and the possible answers. But I don’t really have a good sense yet because I really have no idea how this is gonna shake out,” Lacob told Tim Kawakami of The Athletic on Thursday morning. “We don’t know what the salary cap is gonna be, we don’t know what the luxury tax is gonna be. We don’t really know what we can plan on at this point. We just have to look at a lot of different scenarios. That’s what we’re doing right now. It could make a huge difference, it might make no difference.”
Here’s what the Warriors owe, combined, to Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green next season: $130.1 million. For four players. Before all this, the tax line was a projected $139 million. So, yes, they’ll be in the tax, no matter how cheaply they round out the roster. But how deep into it? That depends on how far Joe Lacob’s ownership group is willing to go. If the Warriors use their high first-rounder (fixed salary in the $5-$9 million range), the $6 million taxpayer mid-level and the $17.2 million trade exception, that bill is going to be steeeeeeeeeep.
SLAM: Stephen Curry has talked about an encouraging call he got from you when he was struggling during his second year in the League. What do you remember about that? Monta Ellis: I know what you’re talking about. I had just got traded to Milwaukee. The fans were upset. Then they had this Chris Mullin night, where they retired the jersey or whatever, and they booed the owner. I think that kind of got to him because everybody was talking about me more than anything. A lot of people were saying they would’ve taken me over him. Being young, sometimes that’ll get to you. And I understood it. So I just called him and told him, Don’t worry about all of that, man. Just keep working hard. You’re in a great situation, it’s your team. There are going to be critics. You’re going to have people that are going to say what they’re going to want to say. Once you turn it around, I guarantee they are all going to be on your bandwagon. I just told him to keep working hard, man, and play basketball how he knows and stop overthinking it. Just play. As players, you get in that mode sometimes. I get that.
Warriors increasing contribution to employee relief fund
Larry Beil: This is how a championship organization operates. The #Warriors Foundation (with owners & players chipping in) has increased its contribution from $1 million to $1.4 for part-time employees who work home games. That’s about $1,000 per person. CHAMPIONS on & off the court.
What will the Warriors’ ownership do to help the ushers, vendors, janitors and other Chase Center support staffers survive the loss of income during the current NBA shutdown? That’s an army of about 1,500 people, paid by the hour when they work, and most are suddenly out of work. The NBA has shut down for at least 30 days, and concerts at Chase are a no-go for at least two weeks, by San Francisco decree. “We will definitely do something, soon (to assist the workers),” Warriors’ owner Joe Lacob said Thursday, via email. “We have an idea, but (we) have to make sure we can do it.”
As Lacob detailed, when it comes to transactional decisions, it’s nothing personal, for franchises AND players. “We’re in a transition period right now, and I hated to see some of these guys go. I mean, it bothered me.” “Those are tough things to do. But, it’s a business.” “And by the way, I don’t get mad, the other side of the coin, I can’t get mad when Kevin Durant, who I felt pretty close with, decides he’s going to leave.” “Which, to me, made no sense. Like, you’re the best organization, I hope he thinks, in the world… Winning. Other great players. The new Arena. To me, there was like every reason in the world to stay, but I’m not going to be mad at him because it’s his life. And he earned the right and for whatever reason he decided he wanted to leave.”
KD recently admitted he knew at about the halfway mark of last season that he was going to leave the franchise. Warriors owner Joe Lacob — who doesn’t like to discuss the past very much — probably never will understand why the four-time scoring champion chose a different path. “I can’t get mad when Kevin Durant — who I felt pretty close with — decides he’s going to leave. Which to me, made no sense,” Lacob said Monday morning on 95.7 The Game. “You’re (with) the best organization — I hope he thinks — in the world.
“Winning, other great players, the new arena. To me, there was every reason in the world to stay. But I’m not gonna be mad at him because it’s his life and he earned the right. And for whatever reason, he decided he wanted to leave. “I can’t control that. I tried (laughing).”
In other words, the Warriors are spending a lot on scouting for this upcoming draft. You can call it due diligence or read into it further. Joe Lacob is a draft addict and he’s excited about this one in particular. This does not look like an organization that’s simply looking to draft someone just to deal him in a trade for a star. The Warriors look like a team that’s on an ardent hunt for a future they grow from within.
No longer are the Golden State Warriors “light years ahead” of the 29 other NBA teams. Instead, they sit at the bottom of the league with the worst record (12-43) coming out of the All-Star break. For a team that won three NBA titles and reached the Finals in each of the past five seasons, they now have their sights set on the draft and free agency and not the playoffs. “The great thing about this is we can re-imagine the next dynasty,” owner Joe Lacob told USA TODAY Sports during the NBA’s Tech Summit during All-Star weekend. “I think it’s been a good year for us to take stock with where we’re at and try to recreate.”
Oh yeah, and the Warriors expect to have a fully healthy Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney next season. “You add one guy and it can change everything,” Lacob said. “We already happen to have two of the greatest shooters of all time. Look at the games. We’ve only been losing by six or eight points. But add those two guys, and we’re already pretty good. I think Wiggins is going to help a lot.”
As for Curry? The Warriors plan to reevaluate him in early March after fracturing his left wrist only four games into the season. Since then, Curry has spent the last three months healing. He has spent the past month completing various shooting workouts. “Steph is coming back. That’s not even a discussion internally,” Lacob said. “He’s ready to play so he should play. By the way, we’ll try to win every game. I’m not really about, ‘Let’s lose every game so we can get the best pick.’ You try to do that, you’re messing with the basketball gods. So we don’t believe in that.”
The Warriors lost an entertaining game to the Lakers, Wiggins looked solid in his Warriors debut, his new teammates played with energy, and Lacob was ready to argue against anybody criticizing the Warriors for trading Russell only six months after acquiring him and adding the often-disappointing Wiggins in the process. “Anybody who can’t see that this is a great deal for us, I don’t know what they’re thinking,” Lacob said. “You can sit and talk about what his salary is, but (Wiggins) had the same salary as D-Lo. They’re both good players. They’re different players. You can question whether this is a better fit; we think it is, as much as I liked D-Lo. He’s a really good player. And I think it’s good for him, too. So it’s a fair, good thing for both teams.”
The Warriors lost an entertaining game to the Lakers, Wiggins looked solid in his Warriors debut, his new teammates played with energy, and Lacob was ready to argue against anybody criticizing the Warriors for trading Russell only six months after acquiring him and adding the often-disappointing Wiggins in the process. “Anybody who can’t see that this is a great deal for us, I don’t know what they’re thinking,” Lacob said. “You can sit and talk about what his salary is, but (Wiggins) had the same salary as D-Lo. They’re both good players. They’re different players. You can question whether this is a better fit; we think it is, as much as I liked D-Lo. He’s a really good player. And I think it’s good for him, too. So it’s a fair, good thing for both teams.”
The Warriors owner spoke to Warriors Pregame Live on Saturday about how the injury to Curry affected his outlook on this season, and as you might imagine, he’s not happy with the mounting losses. “It’s been a hard year, but maybe harder for me and [general manager] Bob Myers,” Lacob told Greg Papa. “We’re very competitive, as you suggest, and I always want to win. The thing I hate the most, I have so many people come up to me … everyone comes up and says to me ‘Well, aren’t you glad you’re going to get this great draft choice?’ and ‘It’s a perfect set-up like the Spurs from 20 years ago,’ and that did turn out to be a big thing for them, set them up for a long time. But, you know what? I’d rather win.
“I don’t think you can depend on the draft or a draft choice turning a franchise or an organization around. I would rather win and keep that culture, that culture of winning going. So the thing that concerns me and gets me worried is that somehow we’ll lose that edge or we’ll lose that culture. And with Steph and Klay, hopefully, we won’t. But it does bother me and it’s been a hard adjustment for me. I don’t like going out there and watching us lose.”
When Joe Lacob and Peter Guber paid $450 million for the Golden State Warriors in 2010, the sports world was left scratching its head. The first major team purchase for the venture capitalist and Hollywood producer, who outbid billionaire Larry Ellison, then the world’s sixth-richest person, set a record price for an NBA franchise. It was hardly anyone’s idea of a crown jewel. Forbes valued the team at $315 million seven months earlier, No. 18 in the league. The team had been to the playoffs just once in the prior 15 years and had inconsistent attendance at its 44-year-old arena. No one is questioning the deal now. Today the Warriors are valued at $3.5 billion, the third most valuable team in the NBA behind the New York Knicks ($4 billion) and Los Angeles Lakers ($3.7 billion), a ten-fold appreciation since 2009 that has proven to be the decade’s best team investment in all the major sports leagues, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and international soccer, on a percentage basis.
Drew Shiller: Warriors owner Joe Lacob to @Marcus Thompson: “Steve Kerr was the perfect solution to our future. He is a basketball and interpersonal genius. A great person.”
It’s rare that a season in any sport is torched in Week 1, but what choice was there? Though the Warriors added D’Angelo Russell, hoping he might offset some of the offense lost with KevIn Durant’s departure (a decision that, according to some, still haunts franchise CEO Joe Lacob) – and, at worst, be of value in trade – they already had seen enough of D-Lo to know he is not equipped to fill the leadership/galvanization void created by Curry’s absence.
So, while many of his employees were clearly and logically shellshocked in the Curry news aftermath, Lacob agreed to answer a few questions from me and The Athletic’s Ethan Strauss to make sure people understood that he was not signing up for a long dose of franchise-wide melancholy. “I’m just telling you that the bottom line is I’m not negative and I’m not going to get negative,” Lacob said outside of the Warriors locker room late Wednesday. “I’m an optimist and we’re building something. You’re always looking short term and you’re looking intermediate term and you’re looking long term.
“And I think we’ve got a lot of good young players in place. Potentially, there’s a silver lining in all of this, who knows? And I’m very optimistic about our future. Very optimistic about our future. I think we’re going to be there at some point. Can’t say when. We’ve obviously got a lot of injuries now, but we’re going to be there.”
I asked Lacob: Is it troubling to contemplate your fans paying all that money to come to Chase to watch a struggling team? “I think our fans are smarter than that,” Lacob said. “I think they knew when we started the year without Klay and a lot of younger players that we were going to have to take the year to get better. And it’s obviously gotten a little tougher now with the injuries — we’ve had a lot of injuries — and I think our fans will understand that and we’ll stick with us.
Starting this inaugural Chase season, it’s estimated that the Warriors will take in about $700 million in annual revenue for the foreseeable future. This about $250-300 million more than the Knicks or Lakers, the next-highest NBA teams, and possibly more than even any NFL team, “except maybe the Cowboys,” one source said. Actually, in 2018, Forbes estimated that the Cowboys took in about $950 million in annual revenue, so the Warriors aren’t there. But it’s still higher than any non-Cowboys NFL team (Forbes estimates that the Patriots are the next highest in the NFL, at $600 million in annual revenue), higher than the Yankees’ Forbes-estimated $668 million (No. 1 in MLB) and more than $400 million higher than Forbes’ estimate for the NBA average.
The Warriors are set to take in about $5 million in gate receipts per game, before costs are subtracted from the total. Yes, if you divide that by the 18,064 listed capacity, that’s $277 per person in the arena. This is a number, I must admit, that I did not expect. I knew the Warriors grossed upward of $4-5 million per early-round playoff game at Oracle the last few years, but I had no idea that their regular-season gate could be so high. But I’ve since been told that the Warriors grossed about $3 million per regular-season game in Oracle’s final season, so a bump up to $5 million per date at Chase certainly makes sense.
Golden State Warriors majority owner Joe Lacob has purchased a mansion in Malibu, Calif. for $29.1 million, reports Variety.
The luxurious 5,512 square foot home on Carbon Beach blends indoor-outdoor living with floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors that open to a loggia and outdoor kitchen, fire pit and hot tub. Inside, there are five bedrooms and six baths. The property also touts a home theater, elevator and glass room gym, among many other amenities.
