Warriors Owner Joe Lacob continues to cement the perception that he’s racially challenged with each dribble of information that is released. How did Lacob meet the unproven man he picked to coach the Golden State Warriors in place Mark Jackson, who guided the team to the playoffs twice? Over golf.
That’s right, golf.
It seems to make sense, considering that just three percent of the Golden State Warriors’ 24 people in top management positions is black, and that includes the general counsel and the head of public relations. If you go through the Warriors entire staff directory, you’d be hard pressed to come up with a percentage representation of blacks that equals anything close to that for the NBA’s players.
It’s well-known that even in the age of Tiger Woods, many African Americans don’t play golf. But most important, playing golf says nothing for Kerr’s basketball coaching ability. I’d feel better if Lacob said that he met Kerr over a pickup basketball game, but no. Not Joe.
And Kerr hammered home the golf outing, chubby, chubby way that he became the Warriors Head Coach by saying:
What helped is that I have previous relationships with Joe and Kirk [Lacob] and definitely Bob. Bob and I have known each other for years–he was Robin Lopez’s agent; I drafted Robin in Phoenix, so we spent some time together then.
So I knew Bob. And I’ve known Joe actually a long time through a mutual friend, a venture capitalist in the Bay Area. So we’ve been on golf trips together.
The familiarity for sure was helpful and it helped everybody relax and just sort of… be themselves.
Wow.
And Lacob seemed to point to the overall racial cultural problem with the Golden State Warriors and having a black head coach when he said this:
“Look, we did pretty well with Mark Jackson,” Lacob told USA TODAY Sports by phone. “In the end, it wasn’t working out, which only we can probably totally appreciate on the inside. No one is ever going to understand it. I get that (people) see the win total, and they think that’s all that matters. But we have an organization that’s 200 people, and everyone has to get along and work together and that’s just the way it worked out. …We went out and we wanted to find the best guy to lead this team to the next level.
Lacob said “But we have an organization that’s 200 people,” and he should have added that the vast majority are not black. There’s a huge and giant race problem here that should give any reasonable person the shakes. It’s caused the Golden State Warriors to take on the look of a modern plantation, where the only place African American’s are valued equally is on the field of play, but not in the board room.
This is a problem I thought we were ridding ourselves of. Obviously, I’m wrong.
Many are saying that the hiring of Kerr is the same as the way the Warriors hired Mark Jackson. That’s not true, and to say that means many don’t know how to use Google search or the Internet.
According to Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News, in 2011, Lacob interviewed three people, Jackson, and then-San Antonio assistant Mike Budenholzer and Michael Malone. Lacob liked Jackson, but only if he was able to retain Malone, who’s white. He was able to do so.
And take note that it was Lacob, and not Mark Jackson, who hired Mark’s assistant coaches. Mark wasn’t able to pick his own top staff. Moreover, when Lacob hired Keith Smart, Smart didn’t have previous NBA Head Coaching experience either.
Then, about Mark Jackson after the 2011 press conference Lacob had to introduce him, he said this:
LACOB: I will tell you I am positive that he is the best candidate we could’ve hired to be the head coach of this team. And I said it, maybe not well, in the introduction to this press conference, I actually believe he’s the most experienced, as well as the best, guy we could’ve hired.
You have to break down the word “experienced.” Is he the most experienced as a head coach or bench coach, sitting in the seat? No. But there’s probably 10 characteristics on my board of the things I want in a head coach. If you go through each one of those, he’s a helluva lot of them.
When I met with him and we met with him, I think we all felt the same way in that first meeting. We said, ‘wow, this guy is a leader.’ He has had so many great experiences, he will help change the culture, he will drive the people in this organization.
All the players by the way are texting… you know the answers? David Lee sent me a text that said, ‘Wow.’ That’s all it said. Fantastic thing.
Steph Curry, the same thing. Monta Ellis is all excited. They’re all excited because in the basketball world, not in the media world, in the basketball world they see experience there when they see Mark Jackson. That’s what they see. They see a guy who’s done it, who’s been there, they respect that.
Fast forward to today: Lacob insists Steph Curry’s behind the Kerr hiring too.
At some point, Steph Curry’s going to get tired of having words put in his mouth. I think it happens this year.
Overall, the best move for the Golden State Warriors was for Lacob to just own the team, and not run it. But that’s too much for him. Lacob’s not only got his hands dirty in it, he’s given his son Kirk Lacob a high management position on the team: Assistant General Manager.
So let’s see… You have to be a golfer or the owner’s son to get a good job with the Warriors.
Stay tuned.