- 2 days ago
Willard and Dibs continue to react to Marc Stein's report that Joe Lacob wants the Warriors to continue chasing LeBron James. What does that say about Lacob as an owner?
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00:00But I was thinking after the conversation we just started,
00:02and again, it's all kind of based off of this quote,
00:05which I think is a, you know, it's not a bad quote.
00:07It's just kind of a weird one from Mark Stein.
00:11Quote, the Warriors, most of all, owner Joe Lacob
00:13appeared determined to stay in it until the end.
00:16And again, maybe that doesn't mean that Joe wants LeBron
00:19more than other people.
00:20Maybe it's just that he's got more resolve on the issue than others.
00:23You know, like maybe Dunleavy did call him one night.
00:27Hey, Joe, we're losing out on everybody.
00:31There ain't not going to be a quai.
00:33There's not going to be, like, I don't know.
00:35You know what I mean?
00:36We can't do anything.
00:37No Trey Murphy.
00:38We're just waiting here.
00:39And Joe said, that's it.
00:42Wait, hang up.
00:43Good night.
00:44Maybe that's all that means.
00:45I don't know.
00:46But it's an interesting quote.
00:49Gets us on a conversation about owners.
00:53And Joe has put himself out there.
00:55I mean, the story you just told.
00:58Joe is an interesting kind of owner.
01:00I know that because they've won in the relatively short period of time
01:05that he's been here with the Warriors,
01:08that means he's got a good reputation.
01:11But he also, he puts himself out there
01:14and very much puts himself in the middle of basketball decisions,
01:20which is not my favorite.
01:22I've made that clear, but it's fine.
01:24But I wonder if he realizes sort of what that means next, post-Steph era.
01:31Think about owners around sports.
01:33Yep.
01:34What do you think the percentage is of owners who we know,
01:39like we hear from them?
01:40We don't hear from Charles Johnson.
01:44We barely hear from Greg Johnson.
01:47Jed York talks some, but less than he used to.
01:51And so there's that kind of owner.
01:54But what do you think the percentage is in terms of owners
01:57who are out there doing interviews
02:00and injecting themselves into personnel decisions?
02:04I would say it's about 5%.
02:06And I just was immediately thinking about,
02:09as you were rolling that out, like Jerry Jones,
02:11yeah, he does a weekly with our sister station.
02:12And I know about Matt Ishpia with the Phoenix Suns,
02:17but you don't really hear from him a lot.
02:19But even if I was thinking about like owners that I even know,
02:22Robert Kraft is an owner that you know.
02:24He's been doing it forever.
02:26And I don't know how much media he does anymore.
02:29But if you go through the three big sports
02:32and the 90, 92 teams, I guess, there's 32, 30, and 30.
02:37Like, could you name more than 20 owners?
02:40Like, Stan Kroenke.
02:41Right, but even Stan Kroenke, if he were sitting at this table,
02:45would you know that was Stan Kroenke?
02:47No.
02:47Do you know what he looks like?
02:48No, but he'd probably be sitting on a big wallet,
02:51and I'd be looking at him going,
02:52man, you must be one of them Kroenke's.
02:54Yeah, you ever hear my story about Monster Energy drinks, sir?
02:58Oh, boy.
02:59Even Steve Ballmer, like, you don't hear from him a lot.
03:02You know he's the owner, and he's a passionate fan owner,
03:05but you don't really, I think, hear from him as much.
03:08And he was a big name prior to, you know, prior to buying the Clippers.
03:12He was known in the business world.
03:14I think of Mark Cuban, who's not in the game anymore.
03:18But, you know, go around the league.
03:20And sure, there might be names that you know.
03:24Do I have this right?
03:25Miami Heat?
03:26Is that Mickey Arison or something like that?
03:28That sounds right.
03:29Is that right?
03:29And James Dolan with the Knicks.
03:30Yeah.
03:31But they're, like, player personnel.
03:35You hear about Dolan usually because it's like, I don't know,
03:38he's acting like a moron or he's cheap or he's arguing with the next player.
03:42But I don't hear James Dolan when the Knicks are on the clock.
03:48Like, that doesn't happen.
03:50You know, you don't, with the Miami Heat,
03:53you don't hear anything past Pat Riley.
03:56You don't know that.
03:58The only reason we know Dan Gilbert in Cleveland is because he penned a letter to LeBron.
04:03But some of these other great teams, I mean, the Lakers recently sold.
04:07I wonder how many people could even tell us who's the owner of the Lakers.
04:10Yeah, I have no idea.
04:11Exactly.
04:12But Joe Lacob has put himself in, I think you're about right,
04:17whether you want to call it the 1% or the 5%.
04:19And that portion or that kind of owner,
04:25they are on the block a lot more than other owners when things don't go well.
04:31And Joe Lacob has never owned without Steph Curry.
04:34Right.
04:34And so where does that, that's what I'm kind of setting up.
04:37And I'm sure he doesn't mind it at all.
04:40But he is a very rare owner.
04:43He is public.
04:45He is doing interviews.
04:46He is in the draft room.
04:48He is raising his arms, screaming at his GM.
04:52Do you know what I mean?
04:53Oh, totally.
04:53And so that's like if you do it and you get to do that,
04:58but then when things get tough, that puts you a little bit more in the center square.
05:03For sure.
05:04As to where a lot of other teams put their GM or their Pobo in the center square.
05:08Right.
05:08And he's in the center square because he put himself in the center square
05:11and he's dominated in the center square with four championships.
05:14And so if you are Joe Lacob and I dream about having that sort of a resource to be Joe
05:20Lacob,
05:21but you come in with the hubris and the braggadocio about what you're going to do.
05:25And then you go out and you do it not once, but four times.
05:29And so now you're in the spot here in 2026 where you're thinking we're going to keep this thing going
05:35because I win.
05:36It's what I do.
05:37I don't take L's.
05:39I get W's and he's gone out there and hung banners like he said he would.
05:44And so now when you're trying to get LeBron James, of course, the quote would be we're not going to
05:49we're not going to give up.
05:50I don't think that Joe Lacob has ever given up on anything, really.
05:54No, I don't think that's in his DNA.
05:57I don't think he minds any of this.
05:59I think he's probably pretty comfortable with the conversation that we're having right now.
06:03And that's why he's the way that he is.
06:06But, you know, one thing I've always sort of thought is one of the is one of the keys to
06:12happiness.
06:12And it's one of the things that I think is defined by kind of getting a little bit older in
06:17life.
06:17The goal is to not care that much what other people think.
06:23Like you wore that shirt yesterday and I bet it didn't even occur to you that that might.
06:28I loved it.
06:29But did it even occur to you that that might become a subject?
06:32No.
06:33Do you care that it became a subject?
06:35I don't.
06:35When I put it on after the three of us showered individually and I looked at it and I was
06:42like, you know what?
06:43I'm I'm showing a lot of a lot of cleavage here as we give France their their do.
06:49And I was like, you know what?
06:50There's a lot of chest hair flying out, but it's 92 out with a 92 percent humidity.
06:55I'm wearing the shirt.
06:57Look, it's a look.
06:58If you had had oversized gold aviator glasses, you probably would have gotten a part in a movie.
07:03It would have been great.
07:04You didn't.
07:05You could do that next time.
07:06We'll see.
07:07This was just our first trip out there.
07:09But my point is, is like, is kind of the the the message I was trying to give goo all
07:14day.
07:15Go out there.
07:17Close your eyes and swing as hard as you want.
07:19If you hit the ball, great.
07:20And if you don't, like, who cares?
07:23Who cares?
07:24So what I'm getting at, I don't know that Joe Lake of gives two rips what everyone thinks about him.
07:32But he's putting himself on a track to someday not be the most well-liked guy.
07:40And here's why I say that.
07:42Not because he's doing anything wrong, but how many owners do you know in sports where you're like, oh, the
07:47fan base loves him or her or whatever?
07:50Who loves the owner?
07:53Are they even built that way?
07:55Is Robert Kraft loved in New England?
07:59I actually don't know.
08:00Maybe a Boston fan can give us a call.
08:02Yeah.
08:03I wonder if you look back.
08:04Is he like a loved figure?
08:06Not to the level of Belichick and Brady.
08:09And he ended up squaring off with Belichick.
08:12Right.
08:12So who does a Boston fan love on Bill's way out the door?
08:17Right.
08:18Probably.
08:19I mean, it was Tom.
08:20Tom leaves first.
08:21And so you're thinking, all right, it's either Bill Belichick or Tom Brady.
08:25We're not sure which one was more responsible for the success.
08:28And Tom wins in Tampa.
08:29And then Bill goes to North Carolina.
08:31And you're left with Robert Kraft.
08:33And I'm sure that his stock in fans' eyes went down because you're the owner.
08:37And you let the two goats walk out the door, basically.
08:41Yep.
08:41And I want to make this point.
08:43Like and respect are two different things.
08:45I think Robert Kraft is probably very respected.
08:48To a degree, I bet Cowboy fans respect Jerry Jones, even though there's kind of an eye roll there.
08:55At the same time, they're thinking he's probably the biggest power broker in the entire NFL.
09:00And he's our owner.
09:01And so that's fun.
09:03And so maybe there's a respect there for what he's built, the businessman that he is and everything.
09:08At the same time, I think most Cowboy fans are thinking maybe don't do personnel.
09:14Well, Jerry Jones, maybe don't do that anymore.
09:18And I don't know if I would use that word, liked.
09:21Is Jerry Jones liked?
09:23So it comes with the territory if you're going to be this visible and audible of an owner that when
09:32it doesn't go well,
09:35it's going to end up a little bit on your doorstep.
09:37And you're kind of built not to be liked because people are jealous and you have a lot of money.
09:42There's that too.
09:43Right. And that, I think, is the nature of it.
09:45And honestly, if you want to look at ownership, and the Jed York example is a great one, I think,
09:50because when he kind of took the reins of the team and he was out there doing a lot more
09:56social media and talking a lot more
09:58and the team wasn't winning, there was resentment.
10:01And then he took a giant step back and he allowed John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan to kind of run
10:05things
10:06and you don't really hear from him anymore, well, the team still hasn't won anything other than a couple of
10:12NFC championships.
10:13But I think the fan base has much more respect and even like of Jed York because he's no longer
10:21out there front facing.
10:22And so Joe Lacob is another good example because if he hadn't won four titles, what would fans be thinking
10:28about Joe Lacob?
10:30I think that they wouldn't be thinking a lot more like they did when they booed him at the Chris
10:35Mullen retirement back in 2011.
10:37I mean, that's just kind of the in thing to do.
10:39If your team's not good and you don't know otherwise as to kind of what's going on, you get mad
10:46at the owner.
10:47That's just kind of how it is.
10:49Who's the guy for the Mets? Cohen?
10:52Yeah.
10:53His name? Steve?
10:54Yeah. Oh, yeah.
10:55Okay.
10:55Now he likes to try to get out in front of things.
10:59When things don't go well, he loves to go to Twitter and say things like,
11:05boy, this sucks and I'm sorry and I apologize and we're working on it and we're obsessed with it.
11:12It's very a la the email that Joe sent to a fan last year.
11:17Good call.
11:17You know, we're on it. Don't you worry.
11:20So he'll get out in front of it, but he also spends like a madman every year.
11:25Seemingly goes nowhere.
11:27So it doesn't come off as he knows what he's doing.
11:31How about this?
11:32Can you think of any owner in any sport where you're thinking,
11:38I like that guy's personnel chops?
11:42I want that guy doing drafts.
11:45Yeah, I mean, I'd have to really pour through it, but it's hard to even think about like where that
11:52works.
11:52And if you think about the most involved owners, you think about Jerry Jones and it's now been 30 something
11:58years since they've won.
11:59And I don't even know if his personnel chops are, if he's the guy like pulling the strings.
12:05I know his son is involved.
12:06And you think about Joe Lacob and in baseball, I don't even know if there is an owner that would
12:12measure up to that.
12:13I was just pulling up the baseball board, looking at teams.
12:16I don't know how many owners I could name in baseball.
12:19Right.
12:19It might be five.
12:22You know, I know Cohen.
12:24Obviously, I know the dummy who owns the A's.
12:27We know the Giants.
12:29Yep.
12:30And there's a handful of other either names or groups.
12:34We know Artie Moreno with the Angels.
12:36Good call.
12:36Yeah, that one's gone sideways.
12:38And he came in with all kinds of fanfare, sombreros and beer for everybody.
12:43Kind of a vibe.
12:45And then that's gone totally sideways.
12:48I made a smattering of others.
12:50I have no idea who owns baseball teams.
12:53Right.
12:53Largely.
12:54Even if you think about it in our business, like who owns like these media companies.
12:59And, you know, I could go around the entire room and ask who owns Odyssey.
13:04And the majority of people probably wouldn't know.
13:07And it's because the ownership allows the people who run the thing to run the thing.
13:13And this is not an indictment on Joe Lacob.
13:15And I don't even know how involved he is in the everyday doing what he's doing.
13:21He seems pretty front-facing.
13:23It feels involved, right?
13:24It does.
13:24And at the same time, they've won four championships.
13:27So, as a fan, I will give him all of the latitude that I can until you start to really
13:34stockpile mistakes.
13:35And, you know, if you want to put Wiseman at his doorstep or Kaminga or, you know, the things that
13:42you think have gone wrong,
13:43if you want to pile those up on his doorstep, you're allowed to.
13:46But still, I think the four championships stack is still taller than the mistake stack.
13:51You know what I mean?
13:52Kaminga still doesn't have a team.
13:54That's early.
13:55No, I'm wondering, and I don't mean this just about Jonathan, maybe all the guys, anybody who's left,
14:04it's we've just hit the you've got to wait for LeBron button.
14:07Right.
14:08I don't know if anybody knows what to do.
14:10And the players may be sitting there and their agents thinking,
14:13I don't know exactly how much money we can get until this LeBron thing is taken care of,
14:18so we'd be dumb to sign.
14:20I think Jonathan's got offers on the table.
14:22I don't know if he likes them.
14:24Right.
14:25But I don't think they want to sign him yet because it's like you want to let,
14:28you want to wait for the other shoe to drop.
14:30Who signs first, Jonathan Kaminga or Brandon Ayuk?
14:34Ayuk.
14:36Oh, Jonathan Kaminga.
14:39Brandon Ayuk?
14:40I mean, football's right around the corner.
14:42He's not playing football anymore.
14:44Ever again?
14:45Never.
14:46I know you saw the T.J. Houshman's out of thing.
14:48Yeah.
14:48I've been saying this for three weeks.
14:50Yeah.
14:51Who the hell's signing that guy?
14:53Who's that desperate?
14:56Who's that ignorant?
14:57Why would they do that?
14:59You might catch a wide receiver injury in camp.
15:02Yes, you might.
15:04Cat.
15:06He's a cat.
15:07You might catch a crazy person on your roster as well.
15:10As boy.
15:11Oh, front of the line pass.
15:12Philmo Mike.
15:13Come on, Philmo.
15:15Where you been?
15:16Oh, man.
15:17I've been living, working, chilling, elevating.
15:19Let's go.
15:20I've been continually to wash my back.
15:24Hey, but listen, man.
15:26You know what's so interesting about what you said, Mark?
15:29You got to look at it from two different perspectives when it comes to those two owners.
15:33Uh, because Joe Lacob, the hood would say he got it out the mud, right?
15:41Yep.
15:41So, for him to be talking this crap, it's kind of like, you know what?
15:46Do you, Joe?
15:47Because you can feel me like you did what you had to do for Jed York to speak out and
15:53say what he said.
15:54The perspective of something getting kind of like, you know, handed down to you.
15:58And it's like, bro, like, how are you going to talk about this and talk about that, even though you
16:04are the owner?
16:04You get what I'm saying?
16:05So, that perspective kind of like, I think, gives Joe Lacob a lot.
16:10Joe, I like that.
16:11Joe Wakeup a lot more ability to talk his talk over a person like Jed York, where it was kind
16:20of not the same.
16:21Even like a Jerry Jones, I've heard Google say millions of times, now, I don't know how he like Jerry
16:26Jones or respect him, but he does.
16:29He says, man, Jerry, you got to give it to him.
16:32At the end of the day, he don't have the rings to show for it in the last 31, 30
16:35years.
16:36But at the end of the day, he is a great person.
16:39Sort of like, I guess, like an Al Davis, though.
16:42So, it's like, you know, it's all about the perspective and the perception and the vantage point of how you
16:47view that owner or that GM.
16:50I think that's a totally fair point.
16:52Philmo, you're always welcome here, man.
16:54Appreciate you.
16:55Like, I think that's well said.
16:58I also think, though, those two guys go about it in a very different way.
17:03Like, if they were the exact same in their behavior, then you're going to give Joe the nod for being
17:09a self-made guy.
17:11But Jed York, to your point, has done a really good job of dialing it back.
17:16Dialing it back.
17:17Get in the background a little bit more.
17:19He's matured, and he's handled himself well.
17:22He's not out there the same way Joe Lacob is.
17:25I don't see Jed York in the draft room yelling at Kyle Shanahan.
17:29Hey, make the pick, dog.
17:31Right.
17:31I don't see that.
17:33No.
17:33Jed's going to be a little bit more understated.
17:35And it's smart, and I don't know if somebody got to him or if he just, you know, gradually matured
17:41to that point.
17:41And it's a little bit different because Jed York is not a self-made man.
17:45Jed York was born into it.
17:47He was born into riches and Joe Lacob, and I don't know his full backstory, but I believe that he
17:53came from very little, and he made, you know, some thousands.
17:58Then he made some hundreds of thousands, then millions, and then now he's, you know, up there in the billions.
18:02And so if you've done that, you have a little bit more of a, I did this vibe, you know?
18:08No doubt.
18:08Yeah, it's very different.
18:10Does not mean, though, if you were born into it that you're not capable of doing a good job.
18:14Correct, but I do think that it means that maybe you don't have that same level of, like, of the
18:19hubris and the confidence of, man, I've done all these things.
18:22You don't got that dog in you.
18:24Right.
18:24Jed York was born a York.
18:27Like.
18:27Sure was.
18:28Yeah.
18:28And it'll always be one.
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