Some people just do not know when to stay quiet and take their well-earned loss. Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob appears to be one of those people.
Fresh off an unprecedented collapse in the NBA Finals, Lacob is still spouting off about his incredible vision for the franchise. This comes on the heels of a widely-read profile of Lacob and the Warriors in The New York Times Magazine in which Lacob took multiple opportunities to praise his own leadership. From claiming his team was “light years” ahead of the rest of the league while lauding his team-building ability, Lacob expressed little modesty over the franchise’s success.
[As] Lacob sees it, Curry’s dominance on the court, though essential, is inextricable from everything else he’s done with the franchise over the last few years, from knocking down the office walls to the Ellis trade. “It’s not just Steph Curry,” he told me once. “It’s architecting a team, a style of play, the way they all play together. It’s all extremely thought through.”
For those that believed in karma, Lacob’s hubris seemed perfectly ripe for retribution. Karma might not actually be real, but the results speak for themselves.
GSW’s record before NYT Mag's story with Joe Lacob’s “light years” comment went online on 3/30: 68-7.
GSW after that, plus playoffs: 20-11.
— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) June 23, 2016
So did Lacob learn his lesson following an embarrassing defeat on the NBA’s biggest stage? Of course not. The Warriors owner was back to his old self-aggrandizing ways just days after Sunday’s Game 7 loss when speaking at Stanford University.
“We drove this idea of small ball, and it’s a different style of play,” he said. “Having said that, I think it’s important to know that whenever everyone else starts doing things, it’s time to start doing what’s next. We’re on to the next idea — How can we iterate to evolve to get an advantage? I can assure you we’re very forward thinking in that regard.”
“We do a lot of data analysis from day one,” Lacob said. “We want to be the first to bring new technology.”
While Lacob is praising his team’s forward, out-of-the-box thinking, their revolutionary plan for this offseason is to do what nearly every other NBA team will try to do: sign Kevin Durant.
If that was not bad enough, he also took credit for raising the league’s cap to its new, lofty heights. Never mind the actual reason behind the raise: the influx of TV money from the new NBA’s broadcast deal.
He said the Warriors were the reason for the higher market cap for what teams could pay for players. The projected salary cap for the 2016–17 season rose on Tuesday to $94 million, according to Sports Illustrated.
If karma is real, the Warriors need to get Lacob away from any and all microphones as soon as possible. Otherwise they are in store for some real payback next season.
[San Francisco Business Times]
