Warriors Purchased for $450M by Joseph S. Lacob. One Question: Who IS Joseph Lacob?
As any die-hard Warriors fan knows, the Warriors were purchased by Joseph Lacob, ending the Chris Cohan era for once and for all.
However, many of us expected Larry Ellison, a co-founder of Oracle, to purchase the team. They had a long-standing history of collaboration with the Arena in Oakland currently called the "Oracle Arena," and the rumor that the Warriors and Ellison were to wed was mentioned under fans' breaths for over a year. So as we come to terms that Ellison is not the new owner, we should probably figure out who the new owner is. The first fact that struck me after digging up dirt on him was that he was a part-owner of the Boston Celtics ( http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/press011806-lacob-ownership.html ). He joined the board of directors shortly before the Celtics acquired Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, which transformed the team into an automatic title contender. They ended up winning the championship in 2008. How much of a say he had in all of that is not documented, but any track record of previous success in the NBA is always a good sign. The next thing to note is that he is based in the Bay Area. He has served as the director of Align Technology in Santa Clara since 1997. And seeing as he went to UC Irvine for his undergrad, and got an MPH from UCLA and MBA from Stanford (where he is also an advisory board member of the Athletic department), it is safe to assume that he is California grown. This is important to us Warriors fans. It was easy for Mikhail Prokhorov to purchase the Nets and move them into the great American city, but there is no connection between New York and the Nets. At least not yet. Maybe it's just my townie bias, but knowing that someone is from the area means they have been around to witness the failures of the last Warriors generation. Joseph Lacob obviously has, if he decided that buying the Warriors was worth breaking the record for purchase price of an NBA franchise by $50M. Lastly, he seems to be a director for anyone and everyone. Check out his profile on BusinessWeek ( http://investing.businessweek.com/businessweek/research/stocks/private/person...). The most notable position in my mind is of sportsline.com, which leads me to believe that he really loves his sports. They were purchased by CBS in 2004. So an affiliation with the Celtics, Stanford Athletics and an early startup. I feel good about this purchase now. Larry Ellison's track record with sports is nil. Of course, how he will run the Warriors franchise is yet to be determined. However, I see his history in sports and perennial successes as positives for the Warriors. And I also don't think he would have let us draft Ekpe Udoh.
