Joe Lacob fined for his comments on the league’s ‘unfair’ luxury tax system

“Checkbook Wins” were a hot topic of debate during the Golden State Warriors championship run this past season. Apparently, the saga continues as Warriors’ owner Joe Lacob was fined $500,000 for comments he made regarding the NBA’s luxury tax rules according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The comments were made during Lacob’s recent appearance on the Point Forward Podcast hosted by Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner. In the interview, Lacob expresses his dismay with the league’s rules regarding the luxury tax as he argues that the Warriors should not be punished for building what he calls a “homegrown team”. Unfortunately, the NBA prohibits owners from publicly voicing such opinions which resulted in the hefty fine. Here are Lacob’s comments:

To put Golden State’s tax situation into context, the team paid $170 million in luxury tax during the 2021-2022 season according to Spotrac.com. The Warriors led the league by a wide margin as the next closest luxury tax team was the Brooklyn Nets with a bill of $97 million.

The towering taxes levied onto the Warriors has played a factor into the team’s offseason approach as they’ve opted to construct their roster with their cheaper talent attained through the draft. Although this approach may minimize the effects for now, the team’s tax situation will become an even bigger issue in future seasons with extensions to players such as Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins looming in the background.

For now, Dub Nation’s multi-billionaire owner will have to take this $500,000 fine on the chin. At the very least, Iguodala made sure to apologize to Lacob during Wednesday night’s ESPYs awards show.