The Golden State Warriors are just days away from suffering the worst collapse in NBA Finals history, but that hasn’t changed owner Joe Lacob’s opinion of his team.
In a lengthy New York Times feature about the Warriors’ business model earlier this year, Lacob bragged that his team is “light-years ahead” of every other NBA team in the way it is structured. Losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers after leading 3-1 in the series is not enough to shake his confidence.
“We drove this idea of small ball, and it’s a different style of play,” Lacob said at Stanford’s Director’s College summit Tuesday, per Jennifer Elias of the San Francisco Business Times. “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.”
Small ball worked just fine for the Warriors all season, as they won an NBA record 73 games. But their guards were contained in the NBA Finals, and LeBron James and Kyrie Irving went right at Golden State’s smaller players — specifically Stephen Curry — and consistently made shots in their faces over the last four games.
Still, Lacob is just as proud of his model for success now as he was a week ago.
“We do a lot of data analysis from day one,” he said. “We want to be the first to bring new technology. (Judgment and data) don’t always come together, but we sit there until it does. We come to a confluence of, ‘What do we really need in this team?'”
These are the types of remarks that infuriate Charles Barkley, who consistently ripped the Warriors last year and then took his medicine by wearing a shirt that trolled him.
The Warriors will be right back near or at the top of the Western Conference next year. The unbelievable performances of LeBron and Irving in the NBA Finals don’t mean Golden State’s formula is broken. But if you think Lacob sounds a bit too arrogant by bragging again after his team melted down, we wouldn’t blame you.
