SAN FRANCISCO – Upon buying the Warriors in 2010 with his primary partner Peter Guber, Joe Lacob immediately grabbed a megaphone to herald a gold-plated future.
The Warriors were bound to join the NBA elite, he said, right up there with the hallowed Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, who at the time owned a combined 32 championships in the league’s first 62 years.
To mention the Warriors and Celtics and Lakers in the same breath at that time is to provoke laughter. Or choke on the words. This was, at the time, as crazy bold as a No. 12 overall pick announcing on draft night that he would take his new team from the lottery to the NBA Finals.
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Twelve years, five Finals appearances and three championships later, the Warriors are the NBA’s exemplary franchise, and it’s the Celtics who hope to enter their realm when the teams meet Thursday for Game 1 at Chase Center.
It’s Golden State’s sixth Finals appearance in eight seasons. It’s Boston’s first in 12. Since 2010, shortly before Lacob’s bold statement.
“It's been an amazing run,” Stephen Curry says. “We obviously feel like we still have a lot left in the tank. That's why we're here.
“I don't want to depress myself with the history of the organization right now (laughter). I'm going to think about the bright moments.”
Golden State Warriors
Drafted in 2009, Curry knows better than anyone the dirt the Warriors had to throw off to see daylight, much less reach the mountaintop. The Warriors were serial bottom feeders, with one playoff appearance in the previous 16 seasons. They were 26-56 in Curry’s rookie season, 36-46 in 2010-11, 23-43 the following season, after which they drafted, in order, Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green.
“I remember walking in downtown Oakland giving away tickets to the game as a rookie for one of our team activations or community things that you have to do,” Green recalls. “Certain guys had to go on the BART and give tickets away. I remember that. That wasn't that long ago.”
“A much less respected franchise ... but we were able to change that.”
They were able to change everything we’d always experienced with the Warriors, generally forlorn but with an occasional tease of light always quickly extinguished.
Though Lacob, a minority owner of the Celtics before purchasing the Warriors, inherited Curry, he and Guber wasted little time making savvy, eye-opening moves. They hired of Rick Welts, perhaps the top business executive in the league. They added Jerry West, the legend and logo, to bring credibility to a place without it. They hired as head coach Mark Jackson, who provided instant profile to an obscure franchise.
After making back-to-back-to-back postseason appearances for the first time since the 1970s, the Warriors in 2015 made their first giant leap toward the elite, winning their first championship in 40 years. The next leap came the following year, when they won an NBA-record 73 games. A third leap came a few weeks later, when they persuaded Kevin Durant to spurn four other suitors and come to the Bay Area.
In six years under the Lacob-Guber ownership, the Warriors had evolved from NBA outback to coveted destination.
There is, however, one more statement the Warriors can make. No disrespect to the Cavaliers of Cleveland, but the knocking down the Celtics and all their mystique would be an accomplishment that echoes forever.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr grew up in Southern California in the 1980s as part of the Showtime Lakers massive fan base, which meant he had no love for the rival Celtics. Kerr later played at old Boston Garden and also at TD Garden. He knows the history, so he understands the significance of beating that franchise in The Finals.
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“It was thrilling to be on the Garden floor,” Kerr said. “So, there's a mystique that exists with the Celtics for sure. Incredible franchise, incredible history. And for me, just having grown up watching those games and being a fan, it's pretty cool to be coaching in the Finals against them.”
Yeah, sure, the Warriors of this era would, for all the same reasons, love to face the Lakers, with their 17 championships, in the postseason. Has not happened. Probably will not happen.
The Celtics, with 17 banners hanging in the Garden, will have to do. Beating them in these Finals would give the Warriors bragging rights forever. Don’t think Lacob wouldn’t be first to exploit such an opportunity.