Warriors sold for record $450 million

Warriors sold for record $450 million to Celtics minority partner and Mandalay Entertainment CEO

OAKLAND, Calif. - Golden State Warriors owner Chris Cohan reached an agreement Thursday to sell the franchise for a record $450 million to Boston Celtics minority partner Joe Lacob and Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Guber.

"I am incredibly excited to have the opportunity to be the next steward of this storied NBA franchise. This is my dream come true," said Lacob, who is also the managing partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. "Peter and I intend to do what we do best - innovating and building. It is our passion to return the Warriors to greatness and build nothing short of a championship organization that will make all of us in the Bay Area proud."

There's more:

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/other_nba/view/20100715golden_state_warriors_sold_for_record_450_million/

Bobh,

Is this good, bad or ugly?

gyso

gyso,

I didn't see this thread. I'll delete mine as soon as I'm done here.

Hard to say at this point. On one hand, we'll have an owner who actually has some understanding about how to put together a championship team, Joe Lacob.

On the other hand, Larry Ellison is the #5 richest person in the world and hates to lose anything. Having him at the helm would have driven the process upwards.

Oh well, it is what it is.

bob

.

Bob,

I too thought that Ellison with his ridiculously deep pockets would be the best choice, but here's an alternative view from Frank Hughes, a writer at si.com.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/frank_hughes/07/15/warriors.sale/index.html

I can't say how reliable Hughes is as a basketball writer, but what I found interesting was his implied position that Ellison was being a relative cheapskate and not really on the ball compared to the Lacob/Gruber bid. I'd pretty much take any owner short of Ted Stepian after Cohan's tenure, but after reading the Hughes article, I'm actually hopeful that Lacob and Gruber winning out over Ellison is a good thing.

I typically look at the San Jose Mercury News as a more knowledgeable source for Warriors info. Here's Tim Kawakami's take:

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2010/07/15/warriors-sale-cohan-departs-strangely-silently-and-with-hard-questions-left-unanswered/

After reading his column, I'm a little less hopeful, mostly because he mentions the numerous issues facing the Warriors even with Cohan gone, not least of which is the arena situation (sigh). It's not like the old days when I went to see them play at the Cow Palace and everyone seemed perfectly happy.

But while you'd have to turn to Warren Buffet or Bill Gates to get someone with Ellison's personal financial resources, Lacob and Gruber don't strike me as exactly poor, and it seems like Gruber in particular should be used to arranging the type of multi-party financial deals that a modern NBA franchise needs. And Lacob's apparent desire to bring in a Celtic-style management team is certainly a big, fat ray of hope after so many years of ineptitude.

We shall see. Dare I hope?

In related non-news, I found another item on si.com saying that Erik Spoelstra might want to leave the Heat for the Warriors.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/morning-jolt/07/16/morning.jolt/index.html?eref=sihp

The item is originally from a Comcast Bay Area sports site, and it sounds sorta like the line in Spaceballs where the Darth Vader guy tells the Luke Skywalker guy, "I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate," so I don't think it qualifies as newsworthy. My first thought about the coaching situation was that Lacob's Celtic connections would make them more likely to keep Nelson for at least a year so he can get the all-time wins record. You'd think Nelson would have a better attitude about the whole deal with Cohan (and hopefully Rowell and Riley) gone. Who wouldn't?

Outside

Outside,

Nellie already holds the record.

Sam

Outside wrote:Bob,

I too thought that Ellison with his ridiculously deep pockets would be the best choice, but here's an alternative view from Frank Hughes, a writer at si.com.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/frank_hughes/07/15/warriors.sale/index.html

I can't say how reliable Hughes is as a basketball writer, but what I found interesting was his implied position that Ellison was being a relative cheapskate and not really on the ball compared to the Lacob/Gruber bid. I'd pretty much take any owner short of Ted Stepian after Cohan's tenure, but after reading the Hughes article, I'm actually hopeful that Lacob and Gruber winning out over Ellison is a good thing.

I typically look at the San Jose Mercury News as a more knowledgeable source for Warriors info. Here's Tim Kawakami's take:

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2010/07/15/warriors-sale-cohan-departs-strangely-silently-and-with-hard-questions-left-unanswered/

After reading his column, I'm a little less hopeful, mostly because he mentions the numerous issues facing the Warriors even with Cohan gone, not least of which is the arena situation (sigh). It's not like the old days when I went to see them play at the Cow Palace and everyone seemed perfectly happy.

But while you'd have to turn to Warren Buffet or Bill Gates to get someone with Ellison's personal financial resources, Lacob and Gruber don't strike me as exactly poor, and it seems like Gruber in particular should be used to arranging the type of multi-party financial deals that a modern NBA franchise needs. And Lacob's apparent desire to bring in a Celtic-style management team is certainly a big, fat ray of hope after so many years of ineptitude.

We shall see. Dare I hope?

In related non-news, I found another item on si.com saying that Erik Spoelstra might want to leave the Heat for the Warriors.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/morning-jolt/07/16/morning.jolt/index.html?eref=sihp

The item is originally from a Comcast Bay Area sports site, and it sounds sorta like the line in Spaceballs where the Darth Vader guy tells the Luke Skywalker guy, "I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate," so I don't think it qualifies as newsworthy. My first thought about the coaching situation was that Lacob's Celtic connections would make them more likely to keep Nelson for at least a year so he can get the all-time wins record. You'd think Nelson would have a better attitude about the whole deal with Cohan (and hopefully Rowell and Riley) gone. Who wouldn't?

Outside

outside,

The Kawakami article comes across to me two ways: bitter and sharp. He obviously dumped on Chris Cohan pretty severely. Couldn't happen to a nicer asshole too. His perception of Joe Lacob and the Celtics management style he's likely to bring here was pretty insightful though, I thought. I'm not sure what the issue with the arena is though. There's no damn way the county will let the Warriors move to SF or anywhere else. We're talking waaay too many jobs here. One thing he said that struck home: Anybody's better than Cohan.

Eric Spoelstra leaving the "3 Kings" of the Miami Heat for the utter chaos of GSW? I'd demand some pretty serious and comprehensive drug testing on him if there was even the slightest chance this is true. Even if he's clean, I'd have to consider that maybe it's a purely organic condition, rendering him incompetent for any job higher than department store mannikin.

bob

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Sam,

NBA.com lists Lenny Wilkens with 1,332 and Nelson with 1,309.

http://www.nba.com/history/records/victories_coaches.html

Outside wrote:Sam,

NBA.com lists Lenny Wilkens with 1,332 and Nelson with 1,309.

http://www.nba.com/history/records/victories_coaches.html

outside,

That link is as of following 2008-2009 season. GSW won a paltry 26 games in the 2009-2010 season, but that was enough to push Nellie past Lenny by 3 victories.

bob

Bob,

You'd certainly know about the arena situation better than me. Since I moved out of the Bay Area, I haven't been to a game there in ages. I know it got renovated in the mid-90's. I had in my mind that the biggest issue was how old and outdated the arena was. Does it have the luxury boxes and other amenities that ownership would feel they need?

Sam and Bob, thanks for the info. I had it in my head that he was still a few wins short.