When Joe Lacob bought the Warriors back in 2010, one thing became quickly apparent. The man was not shy.
Many of us were dubious. Lacob told us he learned a lot about the NBA as a minority owner of the Celtics. Guber spoke about his experience owning minor league baseball teams. Joe talked about playing pickup basketball every Wednesday at Stanford. Peter told us stories about making"Shampoo" with Warren Beatty. It was all a bit odd and exhilarating. Could these guys pull it off?
I did say all that. And I would say it again. But now, I'd probably have a better recognition of how hard it is. First thing you have to do is set goals and set a vision. And hire great people. That's kind of what I've always viewed as my primary job. That's what we were trying to do back at that moment in time. As the old Nike saying goes,"Just do it."
It's so hard to just look at just one or two. I tend to divide things into basketball and business. They're two separate areas. They need to pay attention to each other, but they are pretty different. On the business side, everyone viewed the arena as an impossible project. But we didn't. We had good fans, but they weren't really paying us. We gave away a lot of free tickets. We devalued the product by doing that. I think expectations were too low.
What about the time you were quoted saying the Warriors were"light years ahead" of the rest of the NBA? Is that something you regret?
Excitement in another loss. U love to see it