In 2016, Warriors owner Joe Lacob famously suggested the Warriors were light years ahead of the rest of the league. That sentiment becomes rather laughable when you factor the fortune that favored his pocket when he was opportuned to sign his future franchise legend Steph Curry to a four year $44M deal in 2012. That deal would work swiftly in tandem with the fresh 2016 TV deal, lead to a 32% cap spike. The rest would, of course, become history. Much props to the man himself for putting his money where his mouth was as he and his team of shareholders coughed up $678M dollars in tax penalties since their takeover, but I will digress my pity for a man whose net worth has totaled up to $2.1B (Forbes).
In the cold world of business, money will always prevail and this sentiment continues to ring true even when you retain the rights of the man responsible for the unfathomable wealth that the said man has printed into your pocket. For twenty long years the fans suffered and when you came into office you promised glory, and the said man cashed that check. Yet as we sit here in 2024 at the age of thirty six and a paycheck worth fifty million, only a glimmer of true appreciation has been exercised. And NO, a statue will not make up for the irrevocable damage that you will potentially evoke through your inaction.
The Bay Area demands excellence not out of entitlement, we are not the Lakers, but because we bow upon the almighty himself. We have seen his ability to rise to the occasion time after time to make due with incompetence as he did in 2021, willing a team that gave crucial minutes to the likes of Brad Wanamaker and Kent Bazemore. Or in 2023 when management failed to make roster improvements despite the dire need for size which served as our achilles heel against the Anthony Davis led Lakers. And how ignorant of me, to leave out the season, that was of the disastrous 2024 campaign, which prayed upon the promise of “experience” as the stakes loomed largest. Yet how unfortunate, for that same team to topel without an ounce of competitive juice to a mediocre Sacramento Kings team. Then again, anybody who witnessed them play 48 clutch games while going 24-24 would have been able declare their incompetence.
The theme of incompetence is growing redundant and the 2020s have been far from the calm waters that are optimistically declared by the ones steering the ship, but even Edward Smith, who dragged the Titanic to its impending doom, glanced over the presumptuousness of those with eyes peering out through the deck. I will close with words that you wouldn’t dare hear Steph Curry utter because he isn’t one to complain when it comes to roster construction: Get him some ayuda.
