10 Reasons to be Excited About Lacob and Guber
by tafkasam on Jul 16, 2010 9:30 AM PDT
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PrintOK, I realize alot of you are disappointed Larry Ellison didn't buy the Warriors, and don't know too much about Joseph Lacob or Peter Guber. I'll admit, the only thing I knew about them was the companies they worked for. Upon doing further research last night, I can say, I m VERY excited these guys ended up buying the Warriors and very optimistic about the Warriors going forward. I don't expect overnight changes, but with in a few years, we could see a stable franchise, built to win in the long term and challenge consistently. As fans, that's all you can really ask of your owners.
Below, I will list 10 reasons Warriors fans should be excited about our new owners:
10. The Warriors are staying the Bay Area- After seeing a great basketball town (Seattle) lose a team, my first Q about these guys was "are they going to move the Warriors?! Lacob is a bay area guy and Guber already came out and said there is NO WAY the team will leave the Bay Area. The constantly sited, Bay Area's huge market potential as one of reasons they paid so much.
9. They acted fastest- Like it or not, they were VERY aggressive in the purchase. Being aggressive to spend $450 million shows a commitment and passion to own the team. We can say Ellison had more money and offered more. End of day, if he wanted the team he would have bid earlier. It was all ego for Ellison in terms of price. Let's be serious, for Ellison the difference of 400 to 450 to 500 mil is minimal. Lacob and Guber were more serious bidders pushing hard to secure the team.
8.Peter Guber comes from an entertainment background- Like it or not, sports is ultimately entertainment. We all want to see the Warriors win championships, but ultimately as long as it's a good product that is consistently challenging I will be more than happy. Winning it all is to a degree, luck. Luck with injuries, draft etc. Being competitive on a consistent basis, is good management. As a man who has worked 30+ years in entertainment industry, it's unlikely he'll stand for a warriors team that sucks.
7. Guber owns other sports teams and tried to buy others- Guber was near owner of the Oakland A's. Lew Wolff barely outbid him. When Guber was at Sony, he tried to buy the Lakers. He owns man minor league teams. Guber is a huge sports fan.
6. Joseph Lacob- "We're all about Winning"- Now isn't that refreshing?
5. Joseph Lacob has NBA Experience- According to reports, he is respected in the Celtics organization as a minority owner. Is known as a passionate basketball fan and a good business man with respect to running a basketball team. Fact he has owned shares in a basketball team would leave me to believe, what I've read, he LOVES basketball, this is not just a money investment (cause it if was, quite frankly there are much better ones)
4. Peter Guber understands the modern NBA star- When asked about Lebron going to Dan Gilbert's reaction to Lebron leaving Guber said- "Give me a break, will you? [LeBron's] in business. ... This is a 25-year-old kid who wants to put his product in the best marketplace. He gave them seven great years of complete loyalty and built himself from the ground up. He has a right to put that product in the best marketplace, on the best shelves, and think about the future. It's a team sport. He wanted to surround himself with the kind of people that would help build that legacy. I think he did a hell of a job."
However classless Lebron's "The Decision" may have been, we all know why he left. They weren't a good enough team. He asked for help 3 years ago, never truly got it. Guber's comments come across to me as a guy who gets what you need to do to keep a star player happy. After Cohan's poor treatment of players, and inability to really entice any player to come, having an owner who understands what NBA players want is huge. Similar to how Cuban and other owners treat there players first class, make them want to stay, I get impression Guber (as an entertainment industry guy) to understand value of a star AND what you need to do to keep one.
3. Joseph Lacob is a HUGE Warriors Fan- Lacob has been a Warriors season ticket holder for (reportedly) 10 years. Unlike Ellison, who may have attended a few games here and there Lacob has been going for years, felt our pain. I spoke with friends who know of Lacob through KCPB, and they confirmed he is indeed a HUGE Warriors fans. According to what I heard, he is very passionate about the team, similar to McGowan with the Giants, he is often speaking about the team like a fan etc. Though, I don't expect him to be like Cuban (who is?), Joe Lacob could easily be like the Maloofs or other owners who are highly visible courtside and show there passion. After 16 years of Cohan, this is beyond refreshing.
2. They paid $450 MILLION!- Like it or not, no one is going to pay that kind of money to run a losing operation. The only reason the Warriors set a record NBA sale price is potential of the market. We know how passionate Warriors fans are, and how big the Bay Area market is. The only way to truly justify that price and increase the value (what all owners want to do) is to put a consistently winning product on the floor. Cohan bought the team for $119million, and ran the time on a tight budget, refusing to go into luxury tax, taking marginal profits to eventually get his money back. For Lacob and Guber to get return on there investment and increase value, the Warriors need to be a consistent winner like Dallas, LA, etc. More so, paying that much shows a passion for the team.
1. THEY'RE NOT CHRIS COHAN- As cliche as it is, this cannot be stated enough. If not for Donald Sterling's awesome reputation in LA, it'd be safe to say Cohan would be widely regarded as the worst owner in NBA. Alienating fans, constantly making poor decisions regarding management, roster, and a general LACK of commitment to winning, it was time to go. At this point anyone is better.
This FanPost is a submission from a member of the mighty Golden State of Mind community. While we're all here to throw up that W, these words do not necessarily reflect the views of the GSoM Crew. Still, chances are the preceding post is Unstoppable Baby!
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This pretty much sums up what I feel like about the purchase
especially number 1. I hope Lacob is a presence at the games too.
Hey, Cuban gave Dampier 70 mil
We all make mistakes :D
Dissin' Caddyshack?
you must be a YOUNG kid or something, ’cause Caddyshack is a classic. awesome movie, Bill murray at his finest….
by panhandlelegend on Jul 17, 2010 5:21 PM PDT up reply actions
Caddyshack II was not a classic
didn’t even have Bill Murray
Pro-Skub for life
by Reverend_Randy on Jul 17, 2010 6:20 PM PDT up reply actions
yea the original caddyshack is great
but caddyshack 2 is pretty lifeless.
twitter.com/aighttho
http://aightthen.tumblr.com/
Caddyshack..
I think it’s a matter of taste.. I like Rodney and Bill, and I love classic film, but Caddyshack wasn’t really all that funny to me… just saying.
but Caddyshack wasn’t really all that funny to me…
it’s caveman humor
Lights please, lights please, turn off the lights.
by Skeptic con Urquell on Jul 20, 2010 3:55 PM PDT up reply actions
So you don’t have that going for you…
Confront racism: Boycott Arizona
by The Bimbo Coles Experience on Jul 20, 2010 10:26 PM PDT up reply actions
So you don’t have that going for you…
naw, evolution happens.
maybe if I liked golf? but then i’d have to shoot myself.
Lights please, lights please, turn off the lights.
by Skeptic con Urquell on Jul 20, 2010 11:59 PM PDT up reply actions
Haha no dude that’s a reference to the movie!
Bill Murray:
So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I’m a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald… striking. So, I’m on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one – big hitter, the Lama – long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga… gunga, gunga-galunga. So we finish the 18th and he’s gonna stiff me. And I say, “Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.” And he says, “Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.” So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.
Caveman humor? Guffaw!
Confront racism: Boycott Arizona
by The Bimbo Coles Experience on Jul 21, 2010 7:30 PM PDT up reply actions
Rec"D excellent post! You pretty much summed it up tafkasam.
After previously mixing up Guber with Jon Peters I am feeling better about him as well.
Actually liking these guys much better than Ellison!
Ellison has an arrogance and ego(qualities that dont always translate well to a sports organization) that bothers me and lets face it,—→ if Ellison wasnt willing or able to outsmart these guys in aquiring the team then who is to say that he would do a better job in building the team ! After all our zeal for him was mostly related to his wealth and desire/ability to use it and he failed the first most important test!
We should be happy with this new ownership and support them. Good job!
by Only In Fairfax on Jul 16, 2010 10:27 AM PDT reply actions
I'm sold too
say what you want…50 million bucks is a metric $hit ton of money!
I was a little dissapointed to not get Ellison, but these guys do seem like legitimate fans.
Also, Cohan has been nickel-and-diming this team for far too long, pocketing all sorts of salary-savings from questionable personnel decisions (J Rich, B Diddy, Morrow)…the Dubs lost all of these players because of cash considerations.
I agree with 9/10 points
Have some trepidation with number 8. I read the Q&A from Examiner and did not walk away with the warm fuzzies. I agree that to win a championship you have to get lucky on some level. I also agree that to consistently contend, you need good management. However, the entertainment angle is overstated. Afterall, emphasis on the presentation of the product as opposed to the product itself is how we end up with “Great Time Out!”
Sports is entertainment. But the difference between Sport and Movies is that there’s a clear cut winner and clear cut loser every single night. In the entertainment world, you can crap out a dud like Daredevil and still gross $102M domestically (the film industry equivalent of rolling out Vonteego Cummings to a packed stadium and calling it a Great Time Out).
by currytree on Jul 16, 2010 10:42 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs
Afterall, emphasis on the presentation of the product as opposed to the product itself is how we end up with "Great Time Out!"
No, there was plenty of emphasis on the product itself… it was just, shall we say, misguided. However, a good presentation cannot hurt the product on the court. It enhances the product and draws more dollars which can be used to further improve the product on the court. Don’t blame the marketing group’s successes for the basketball team’s failures. They are different parts of the same organization that operate pretty independently.
I’m not sold on the “entertainment industry experience” being a big important factor, but it’s an interesting take that will ensure that the Warriors remain an enjoyable experience. Which probably won’t be a bad thing.
Trust me, learning english isn’t a waste of time. It is actually sort of useful.
-randolphforpresident
by Dubs fan in Boston on Jul 16, 2010 11:08 AM PDT up reply actions
Agree with this:
Don’t blame the marketing group’s successes for the basketball team’s failures.
However, they funnel up to the same point at some point on the totem pole. That person then has a difficult decision to make with a struggling team. If you blow the team up and work to rebuild, you essentially roll out a non product for a few years and cripple your marketing teams ability to excel. However, if you retool year in and year out, you’re mediocre but you can push the product better than essentially advertising a non product.
Great marketing drives great sales which drives product innovation. However, if you have a short-sighted person making these decisions, marketing can often times compromise the correct decision in regards to the product itself which is to take a step back in preparation of taking two forward. At leas that’s my assessment.
If you blow the team up and work to rebuild, you essentially roll out a non product for a few years and cripple your marketing teams ability to excel.
I’m not so sure about that. I mean, you lose more games and the product on the floor turns to crap. But your marketing team, if they’re not stupid, should be able to form some message around “let’s build for the future.”
Trust me, learning english isn’t a waste of time. It is actually sort of useful.
-randolphforpresident
by Dubs fan in Boston on Jul 16, 2010 3:46 PM PDT up reply actions
Look at number 8 this way. Part of that entertainment and building the product isn’t just to attract fans, but get players to want to play here to put a product that is sellable on floor. Sure Daredevil was a dud, but there was still Affleck, Farrell and Garner in it. Those are part of a product people were willing to pay to see. the product itself might not always get the results you desire, but in sports unlike movies, it’s a product you can constantly tweak and fiddle with and never have to say “alright this is it..it’s done”.
by dannyschmanny on Jul 20, 2010 1:52 PM PDT up reply actions
Rec'd
This is pretty much exactly how I feel. As nice as it would have been to have Ellison, it doesn’t make these guys any less good or passionate about the team they just paid $450m for. Ellison could have blew everybody out of the water from the get-go if he really wanted to and if he wanted to secure the team 100%, but it was more about the business of the whole thing for him. Like you said in #9, these guys acted fast and weren’t afraid to go up against Ellison. Cheers to new ownership that looks like they actually care!
by Throw up the Dub on Jul 16, 2010 10:48 AM PDT reply actions
Good post
And would once again add Lacob’s investment in the ABL (which had to have been a labor of love, as the idea of a women’s pro league was never likely to be profitable) as the best indicator of all for positive ownership. We’ll see how it turns out, but I’m happy Cohan is gone and it looks like we have the best ownership team that was interested in buying. I’m shedding no tears over not getting Ellison.
@WorldBLee
I'm excited
Not as stoked as I would have been for Ellison, but they seem like they care, and from what I’ve heard Lacob is very into how the Celtics run things, with heavy stat analysis, which should be right up our alley. If we can get Prichard I would be so down with team Lacob.
I wonder where Lacob plays pick-up bball? I guess he can now play at the Warriors practice facility.
Confident Marco Belinelli supporter
Ode to Tim Kawakami
Like it or not.
Like it or not. Like it or not. Like it or not. Like it or not. Like it or not. Like it or not.
'Like' my band. I mean, it'd be awesome if you did that.
Mandalay Arena??
I have a feeling Ellison is going to pull Oracle from the arena after his contract is up. Maybe they’ll change it to the Mandalay Arena? Works for me
by KindOfInterestedInWinning on Jul 16, 2010 2:46 PM PDT reply actions
I have a feeling Ellison is going to pull Oracle from the arena after his contract is up.
Read to achieve. Once his contract is up, it is over and cannot be breached. Tada!
Trust me, learning english isn’t a waste of time. It is actually sort of useful.
-randolphforpresident
by Dubs fan in Boston on Jul 19, 2010 9:03 AM PDT up reply actions
Ellison should just approach Guber nd Lacob about a 3 way partner ship
I’m all for that nd so should all 3 of them be!
That would be way too many cooks in the kitchen. Imagine the conflict of egos.
Confident Marco Belinelli supporter
Ode to Tim Kawakami
by Doctor Kajita on Jul 16, 2010 3:38 PM PDT up reply actions
I’m all for that and so should all 3 of them be!
they probably wouldn’t wanna waste their time teaching ellison about basketball?
Lights please, lights please, turn off the lights.
by Skeptic con Urquell on Jul 16, 2010 3:07 PM PDT reply actions
According to you Cohan did do 1 good thing as owner, sell to these fools!
Your reasons are legit and this makes me think Cohan actually cared about this franchise, but was just stupid.
Sad we booed him and his kids at the all-star game. That’s harsh!
Rec!
I agree with this post. Larry Ellison would have been great but I did question his basketball knowlege. Everything I’ve heard about Joe Lacob is great, he loves basketball and above all, is a Warrior fan. That means he knows how it feels to lose and how it felt for the “We Believe” era. That means he was probably hurt just like many of us when Jason Richardson got traded and how our team has went down in the gutter since 2008. Hopefully he is true to his word of being committed to winning and bringing us to that championship level. The fact that he has been around the Celtics is very good because that means he’s been around a championship team and knows how to get to that level. I hope that he is talking to Kevin Prichard right now about becoming our GM so he can turn our team around. I think as long as we are building around Stephen Curry and we gradually get to that championship level that we all deserve, i will like him as our owner.
Golden State Warriors Fan 4 Life!!!
Owner: Joe Lacob, Peter Guber
GM: Kevin Prichard
Coach: Brian Shaw
Over 1,000 wins online with GSW in 2K10
..............SC30..............
saying all the right things
Lacob is talking like a Warrior fan. He will be somewhat hands-on during the draft, at a minimum. He expects fans to have a little patience, but not a lot. He’s not a rookie owner, nor is he a rookie at being a managing partner – in the VC world, he’s a bit of a star at it. He’s also, simply by the virtue of his business success and expertise, an expert on building management teams. He wants to see the Warriors against the Celtics in the finals. Literally. (his words) He sees the soundest way to increase the value of the team is to win, and he’s repeated this several times.
Guber will be in the background. What he brings to the table is, as suggested above, his connections to the entertainment industry and practical knowledge of psychology. I would not be at all surprised to see more well-known celebrities showing up at games – more glitz and glamour to rub off on the players and the team. I would not be at ALL surprised to see a “Hollywood star + athlete romance” or two – at least in the gossip columns. (and if you think fame and celebrity isn’t the third desire for star athletes, along with money and winning, you’re crazy.)
by sellWarriorsNowplzthx on Jul 16, 2010 7:33 PM PDT reply actions
Yep, Building the right management team,organization culture etc. is the most flexible impact that a new owner has.
Despite the simplistic view of many fans that all it takes is the willingness to spend money. There are a whole lot of NBA owners with money and ego’s and a whole lot of smart owners but hopefully we now have new owners who are smart and focused in a basketball organization sense ie: will make the best moves possible when the time is right based on a well thought out strategy.
I have to say that surprisingly Riley has shown some of that. We can always argue about the draft untill forever but so far …not a bad job. It would be a bigger surprise though if the new owners dont eventually bring in a totally new team.
The first test will be to see that our new owners do not bring in friends and lackeys but strong basketball minds that will have the ability to work with an involved owner but also the independence to make good decisions and challenge bad ideas from higher up. This is always the crucial element for a “non-traditional” business like this. This was the possible problem with Ellison in that people fear to conflict with an ego like that who may want to appear to be always in “total” control. This is much different from the sailing competition
by Only In Fairfax on Jul 17, 2010 11:11 AM PDT up reply actions
Lacob said
Peter and I intend to do what we do best — innovating and building. It is our passion to return the Warriors to greatness.
That sounds like passion and a desire to win to me. I’m on board
Work as if everything depends on you and Pray knowing that everything depends on God. - Michael Taylor
There is one thing I need to know that will forever determine my opinion of the new ownership group:
Will they pay the luxury tax when the opportunity presents itself to stack the team with good players at some point in the future?
no luxury tax = no championship
Confront racism: Boycott Arizona
by The Bimbo Coles Experience on Jul 20, 2010 10:30 PM PDT reply actions
Will they pay the luxury tax when the opportunity presents itself to stack the team with good players at some point in the future?
no luxury tax = no championship
+10000. Considering the fee they paid for team, and how aggressive they were. I’m willing to bet they are. The only way they will make GSW more valuable and get return on there investment is winning. And to win, you typically go into the luxury tax. I think only 3 teams in NBA made playoffs and not over the cap last year, okc, portland and someone else. And in OKC and Portlands case, by time they ‘pay’ all there players. They will be
#1
BEST REASON EVER!
but i agree with your points. Solid and I love the emphasis on “Passion for the Game” and “Passion for Winning”. The Future is looking Great and This team has much potential!
We need to have another ‘We Believe’ Season!
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