Golden State Warriors owners have high hopes for team
Speaking to reporters at a restaurant near the Bay Bridge, new Golden State Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber gushed over the location of their newly-bought
basketball franchise. Lacob, a venture capitalist, and Guber, an entertainment businessman, bought the Oakland squad for a record price of $450 million. So far, the duo seems happy with the purchase, and they have high hopes for the squad.
"There is no reason in the world that we cannot be successful as new owners of this team -- none," Lacob said. "We are in the greatest city in the world. Look it's
incredible. Who wouldn't want to be here?"
"We have a lot going for us here," he said. "I mean, there's just no reason we can't turn this into a championship franchise."
That is big talk from a team which has only managed just one stint in the playoffs in the past fifteen years. Lacob, who for five years was a former minority owner
and basketball committee member for the Boston Celtics, has seen the meteoric rise that he expects to happen with his new club.
Fast turnaround
"There is no doubt, and this is what people don't understand, that in the NBA there's only 12 players on a roster," Lacob said. "If you're smart, and you've got
to be a little lucky too, but if you're smart, you should be able to, given the right opportunity and recognizing the opportunity and executing on it, you should be able to turn a team around faster than people would otherwise think."
Last September, the Warriors fired coach Don Nelson. Lacob supported the appointment of assistant Keith Smart, saying that their confidence in him caused them to
sever ties with Nelson.
"He's the coach," Lacob said. "We hired him. We didn't have a lot of (choices because of the timing). That's clear. We had to make a decision. It's very fortunate we had a guy sitting there
who we thought could do the job. I like him a lot."
Guber earlier stated that he expects an improvement of 10 wins from the squad's 26 wins last season. However, he stepped his expectations up a notch by saying that
he wants the team to finish with a .500 record.
"We'd love to at least get to be a .500 team this year, setting that as a primary goal," Guber said.
"New ownership, new coach, just the whole philosophy here is clearly different," Lacob said. "It's already happening. There's something very special happening."
Tags: