00:00To Mark Spears' point, and we'll play it again for you, Mark of ESPN joined us yesterday, and he said
00:05this.
00:06I think that the best thing the Warriors got now, Post-Steph, is their brand.
00:10This is the most attractive franchise from a financial standpoint in the NBA.
00:16They're worth more than the Lakers and worth more than the Knicks,
00:19which is an incredible feat for the Lake of Incompany to be able to do that, to be able to
00:24build that.
00:25And I would have never guessed that watching them 15 years ago in Oracle.
00:30So to me, I think what happens is because you have that brand now, because you're in the Bay Area,
00:36because you're in the market,
00:37I think the Warriors will be able to attract free agents in a way that they never could post the
00:43Steph explosion.
00:45I mean, obviously, playing next to Steph is a draw for anybody in the world.
00:49Certainly will be different when he's there, but the Warriors are a global brand now.
00:54They're a Lakers, they're a Celtics, they're a Cowboys, Yankees kind of brand.
01:01Maybe not, but they're there.
01:02So I don't think that these guys are the key to the future, but there'll be somebody to be named
01:09later that will be the key to the future.
01:11I think this is just a massive statement and very, very relevant for us to hear.
01:18You can disagree with him, of course.
01:22I'm just kind of tapping into the idea, and I think we're seeing it with a lot of the comments
01:26that are coming in after we play this.
01:28Like, I don't think Warrior fans believe that yet.
01:31And I get it.
01:32I thought you said it exactly right.
01:34Like, there's too much PTSD.
01:36A lot of scars.
01:37And there hasn't been enough time, and there also hasn't been a second generation of, like, when you compare it
01:45to the Lakers, right, there's Magic and Kareem, and then there was Kobe and Shaq, and then these haven't been
01:53as successful, but wrap in LeBron and Anthony Davis and now Luka and all of that success.
01:58Yes, the Warriors have had this, and apologies to Rick Barry, but, like, the Warriors have had this, and they're
02:06going to have to regenerate themselves before people really, really believe it.
02:11But I tend to think he has a point.
02:15I don't know if they're Cowboys or Yankees, but he has a point, and here's what went through my mind.
02:21Give me an example of something that became a massive brand, like it did what the Warriors have done over
02:31the last 15 years, and then it just turned around and went back.
02:37Is there a comp to that?
02:41Like, prove Mark Spears wrong.
02:43Hey, New England, you became a global brand, and then Tom Brady retired, and everything crashed and burned.
02:52Sure, for, like, two and a half years.
02:56Yeah.
02:57But at the same time, you watch it when they go to the Super Bowl this year, and the way
03:02their fan base kind of reacts, it's a whole new world now.
03:07And I'll keep it in that city.
03:09How about the Boston Red Sox?
03:11The Red Sox, lovable losers forever, and I know that was the Cubs nickname more than the Red Sox, but
03:15you get it.
03:16The cursed Boston Red Sox.
03:19And then they got good, and they've always been kind of a big-ish brand.
03:24Yeah, yeah.
03:25But, like, it's different now.
03:28It just is.
03:30I don't know that we can, in other words, give me a good reason why they'd go back.
03:36I mean, it's not that they would go back, but it's not as easy as, like, you are in a
03:42great place, and you have a lot of money, and so now I want to go there.
03:45And I wonder about free agents now in the NBA.
03:48If you're a free agent, and you can go out there and get absolutely max money, and you want to
03:54go elsewhere, like, what are you looking for?
03:56You're looking for money, number one.
03:59You're probably looking, number two, for a place where you can go win.
04:02And then maybe number three, you're looking for a team that's going to take care of you and your family.
04:07So, I mean, you'll get money anywhere.
04:10And can you win here without Steph?
04:13I wonder.
04:14Well, okay, so the example that just came up twice on the text line and from Grandy is the Chicago
04:20Bulls.
04:21Now, I don't think what Mark is saying is, hey, Warrior fans, don't worry, you're never going to lose again.
04:29I don't think that's what he's saying.
04:31I think what he's saying is you will continue to have a marquee.
04:36You will continue to have the opportunity to attract people and players.
04:41Now, you have to still manage it well.
04:44You've still got to run it well.
04:46Like, we're sitting here now.
04:46I don't know who the coach and general manager are going to be 10 years from now.
04:49I don't know who the coach is going to be two years from now.
04:51I don't honestly know who the coach is going to be in October, for sure.
04:56But I just looked this up because a bunch of people brought up the Bulls.
05:02Okay, right now, the Chicago Bulls still frequently rank as a top five most valuable franchise
05:10in the NBA, considered a top-tier brand, high global appeal.
05:16We get what drives that.
05:18The fact that their star from 30 years ago still has the number one shoes.
05:23So I understand where it comes from, but let's think about that.
05:28Like, if Michael Jordan is still making the Bulls cool, why can't Steph do that when he's 50?
05:35Well, he can.
05:36Or 60.
05:36He can, but it doesn't mean that that automatically leads you to win.
05:40No.
05:40I'm not promising winning.
05:41I'm promising opportunity.
05:43And the Bulls actually, I mean, they tried with Derrick Rose.
05:46They had a pick that they made that he was the best player going, and they brought him in,
05:51and he got hurt, and then he got hurt, and then he got hurt again.
05:54And so the Bulls never kind of really recovered from that.
05:57And since they won the finals back in 1998, they've been to the playoffs, and I'm looking
06:03at it 12 times, but they've never even made it to the conference finals.
06:08So it's been a little bit of an uphill battle, and they haven't been a great free agent destination,
06:14and, you know, they've had high picks, and they've missed, and all the rest of it.
06:17I'm looking.
06:18I just found this website.
06:19It's called Brand Finance.
06:21Oh.
06:22Brand Directory.
06:23NBA 2025.
06:25So start of the year.
06:28Top five NBA brands in order.
06:32And the headline to this entire article is,
06:35The Golden State Warriors remain the NBA's most valuable brand, even as the dynasty era fades.
06:42This is an important word, because as we talk about franchise value,
06:47and the Warriors being more valuable than the Lakers and Knicks,
06:50you're correct if you say, well, they own their own arena,
06:54and the other brands don't necessarily all own their arena.
06:58But that's franchise value.
07:00This is brand.
07:01That's different.
07:02So the dynasty era is fading.
07:05People know damn well Steph Curry's about to turn 38,
07:08yet they remain the most valuable, forget franchise, brand.
07:13They are number one over the Lakers.
07:17And get this, number three, the Knicks, number four, the Chicago Bulls.
07:22Yeah.
07:24The Boston Celtics, number five.
07:26Okay.
07:26There's your top five.
07:27So you can say that the Bulls, and you're right, they've stunk for a little while,
07:33but not in terms of brand.
07:36Not in terms of brand.
07:38So I think Mark has a point.
07:41I can't tell you for sure that he's right.
07:42I don't know the future.
07:43But he's saying what has been established to a degree will never, ever go away.
07:49The brand is one thing, but whether or not a player wants to be a part of the brand is
07:54another.
07:54And I think about the Bulls.
07:56And yeah, it's been almost 30 years since they last won a title, but that brand, Air Jordan,
08:02Jordan's a Bull, and I live in whatever, China or Japan or India or somewhere far away
08:09where I don't actually watch a lot of the NBA, and maybe I don't have league pass.
08:13I know the Bulls because I know Jordan.
08:16And so does that mean that if you're a big-time free agent, you want to be a Bull?
08:21Probably not.
08:22So I wonder about the brand versus how much that attracts, like, players.
08:27This branding tool actually puts a dollar figure on the brand.
08:31Oh.
08:31So we know that the franchise, the Lakers were evaluated at, what, 10 with the sale that they had recently?
08:39Yeah.
08:39The Warriors are worth more.
08:41Plus, I've learned that franchise values, like, whatever you think they are, they're more
08:45if you put them on the open market.
08:47So I think the Warriors could probably have said, if Joe Lacob sold this tomorrow,
08:50I think it goes for $12 or $13 billion.
08:52Oof.
08:53But the brand has been valued at $1.2 billion, which is significant.
08:59The Lakers at number two are not even a billion.
09:03No.
09:03$973 million.
09:05But get this, this does reflect a lowering.
09:10Like, it's down 18% from the year before, driven by more cautious revenue forecasts and a decline
09:18in brand strength.
09:19Because they're fading.
09:21But they're still way ahead of everybody else.
09:23Yep.
09:25I don't know.
09:26It's got to mean something, right?
09:27It does.
09:28It does.
09:28It does.
09:29It does.
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