 Lacob in 2023 | |
| Golden State Warriors | |
|---|---|
| Position | Co-Executive Chairman and CEO |
| League | NBA |
| Personal information | |
| Born | January 10, 1956 New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Career highlights and awards | |
Joseph Steven Lacob [1] (born January 10, 1956) is an American business executive who was a partner at Kleiner Perkins [2] and is the majority owner of the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). [3]
Lacob grew up in a Jewish family [4] in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The Lacob family relocated to Anaheim, California and Joe switched his allegiance to the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Angels. [5] [6]
Lacob earned a bachelor's degree in biological sciences from University of California, Irvine in 1978, master's degree in public health (epidemiology) from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. [7]
Lacob has been a partner at Kleiner Perkins, a Venture capital investing firm, since 1987. [5] His investments have centered around firms involved in life sciences, medical technology, Internet and energy, and such enterprises as AutoTrader.com, Align Technology and NuVasive. [5] Before he joined Kleiner Perkins, Lacob held executive positions with Cetus Corporation (now Chiron), FHP International (a health maintenance organization) and the management-consulting firm of Booz, Allen & Hamilton. [8] In interviews, he has credited his epidemiology degree for giving him a background in statistics that has fed the statistical side of his longstanding sports interest. [9]
He was a primary investor in the American Basketball League, a professional women's basketball league that eventually folded from failure to compete successfully with its rival, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). [5] In January 2006 he became part-owner of the Celtics, where he became a co-investor with H. Irving Grousbeck, an entrepreneur and a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. [10]
On July 15, 2010, Lacob and the group of investors he headed agreed to buy the Golden State Warriors of the NBA from Chris Cohan for $450 million, requiring him to sell his minority interest in the Celtics. [11] The Lacob - Peter Guber group won out over a dozen other bidders for the Warriors, including Oracle chief executive officer Larry Ellison, 24-Hour Fitness founder Mark Mastrov and Texas billionaire financier David Bonderman. [12] He had been a Warriors' season-ticket-holder for about a decade. [5] He already had extensive experience operating an NBA team as part-owner of the Boston Celtics, and also points to his friendships with two major league baseball team general managers, Billy Beane of the Oakland Athletics and Jeff Moorad of the San Diego Padres, who have both proven that winning records are not solely related to the size of the team payroll. [13] Lacob approved the acquisitions of David Lee and undrafted rookie guard Jeremy Lin, a hometown favorite. He also fired coach Don Nelson and replaced him with assistant coach Keith Smart. The sale was unanimously approved by the NBA league's board of governors on November 12, 2010. Lacob and Peter Guber are the chief owners, but Lacob is in charge of day-to-day operations. [12] [14]
Before the 2014-15 NBA season, Lacob fired coach Mark Jackson who had just led the Warriors to the playoffs in consecutive seasons. Lacob explained the decision at a conference of fellow venture capitalists: "Part of it was, he couldn't get along with anybody else in the organization. And, look, he did a great job -- and I'll always compliment him in many respects -- but you can't have 200 other people in the organization not like you." [15]
Lacob generated some controversy by calling his team "light years" ahead of everybody else in the NBA during the 2015-16 NBA season. [16] The Warriors won championships in the 2014-15 NBA season, 2016-17 NBA season, 2017-18 NBA season, and the 2021-22 NBA season. During his tenure with the Warriors, the team has attained the NBA records for the best regular season with 73–9 and most wins in a season (regular season and postseason combined) with 88 in 2015–16, as well as best postseason with 16–1 (.941 winning percentage) in 2016–17.
As of 2022, Joe Lacob's net worth is $1.5 billion, according to Forbes. [17]
Lacob is divorced [18] from his first wife, Laurie (née Kraus), with whom he has two sons and two daughters. He is currently married to Nicole Curran. [19]
The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. Founded in 1946 in Philadelphia, the Warriors moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1962 and took the city's name, before changing its geographic moniker to Golden State in 1971. The club plays its home games at the Chase Center.
Stephen Douglas Kerr is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is known as one of the most accurate three-point shooters in NBA history. Kerr is a nine-time NBA champion, having won five titles as a player and four as head coach of the Warriors.
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Mark A. Jackson is an American former professional basketball player who was a point guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the St. John's Red Storm and was selected by the New York Knicks in the first round of the 1987 NBA draft with the 18th overall pick. He played in the NBA for the Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors, Utah Jazz, and Houston Rockets in a career spanning from 1987 to 2004.
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Draymond Jamal Green is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Green, who plays primarily at the power forward position, is a four-time NBA champion, a four-time NBA All-Star, a two-time member of the All-NBA Team, and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. Considered one of the greatest defensive players in the league, he is an eight-time All-Defensive Team, 2017 NBA Defensive Player of the Year and led the league in steals. Green was a runner-up for the Defensive Player of the Year Award three times in his career.
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Even before the NBA approved the sale, Lacob had a hand in personnel decisions with Cohan's blessing.
It was done really professionally," Nelson said. "I talked to [Lacob] on the phone before I got fired, and I was really impressed. I was a little surprised about the way things happened, but I think it is for the best for everybody.
