The game had been over for about a minute on Monday and Joe Lacob, perhaps a little surprisingly, left the pitch alone, smiling softly at no one in particular and just lost in reverie a little. No entourage. No backslapping buddies.
Just Lacob himself, moving slowly while everything around him went fast.
Chase Center was still jubilant and echoing. The Warriors players were still walking down the tunnel to their dressing room, cheering and laughing as they celebrated their powerful 126-106 win over the Denver Nuggets to take a 2-0 straight lead. Lacob, who wasn’t usually too keen on keeping to himself, mostly did just that.
Here’s how it looked: This is roughly what Lacob planned for this new arena to feel like during the playoffs. Luxurious, loud, tremendously profitable and the right home for a championship contender. He needed a moment. He absorbed everything.
Then I asked him what he thought.
“This is the team we paid for,” Lacob said. “We never really had the team together all year. So I’m looking forward to seeing them all play together. We never really got to see it. I find it exciting to see that.”
He paused and added:
“The biggest thing I’m really excited about is the Jordan Poole reveal. He just plays amazing. … He has probably been our best player for a month and a half. He really shows up. He is an enormous talent.”
A lot is happening for the Warriors these days, and Poole’s leap into the elite is clearly the most significant of them all. But Saturday and Monday were the first two Warriors playoff games ever played at Chase, and it was a success. Stephen Curry is back healthy for this series after missing the last two weeks of the regular season. Draymond Green is back after his own lengthy injury layoff. Klay Thompson is really, really back.
And the lineup of Poole, Curry, Klay, Draymond and Andrew Wiggins closes the halves with a blitz: For the second game in a row, this group, I call them the Death & Maxes unit, absolutely wrecked Nuggets in the second quarter.
“It went as well as we hoped and planned, I think,” Lacob said. “The arena was great. team played great. And I think it was a bit louder than the other day.”
Steve Kerr said, “The crowd senses when we play well and at that point we feed each other.”
The Saturday or Monday crowds weren’t as loud as the classic Oracle Arena thunder, but that would never happen in a new building, in San Francisco, not Oakland, and lined with luxury suites and multimillionaire fans. Things still got pretty loud during the Warriors’ second-quarter onslaught, however, as Poole, Curry and Klay took turns toasting the nuggets defense and Lacob did a few shimmies and fist-pumps of his own.
“I thought the energy was good,” said Draymond Green, who also tried to step on the gas a few times himself to make sure the energy stayed at peak levels. “There were times when it felt like Oracle. There were times when it was super loud. … We all need to get the idea of Oracle out of our heads as soon as we can. This is a very special place. It’s a very different place.
“I mean, even the texture of the building, it’s getting louder, you know, and so we kind of have to get all that thought out of our heads that this place is going to be Oracle. It’s a very different place. Nonetheless, it’s also a great one and we must continue to establish it as the best home ground in the league.”
I asked: Did you notice Lacob on the sidelines?
“It’s hard not to notice Joe on the sidelines,” Green said. “Whether you’re feeling good or bad, it’s hard not to notice Joe on the sidelines.”
This is what Lacob and co-owner Peter Guber have wanted for years, from the negotiations to have it built, the years of waiting and then missing the playoffs the first two seasons after Chase opened. Now they have two playoff games behind them, with a few more likely to come.
“The building is amazing,” Lacob said. “Everyone who comes by here thinks this place is great. When I step onto the pitch I think, ‘This place is amazing.’ Of course we are quite proud of that.
“And anyone who’s wondered if our fans will show up in the playoffs can make up their own minds about that.”
Poole’s incredible play is also a big problem. He’s eligible for a contract extension this summer, although the Warriors have his rights until the end of next season.
However, when you add his 29-point, 8-assist tally on Monday to his 30-point tally in Game 1, it’s hard to imagine Poole getting much less than the maximum allowed — that at $30 million per year could start. That’s a complication for a team already paying more than $300 million in payroll and luxury taxes this season.
I asked Lacob: what if signing Poole could take your payroll to over $400 million?
“I’m not worried about that – especially not now,” Lacob said. “We only have one thing on our mind now and that is to win, get through to the next round and see how far we can get in these playoffs.
“I’m not going to talk about salary because it’s irrelevant at the moment. We’re there this year. After the year is over we will all evaluate where we are and we will try to field the best team for next year. And we’ll see what that is.”
But here’s what might pay all those top salaries: Chase Center itself, an ATM, unlike the NBA or pretty much any other sport that’s ever been. If the Warriors keep winning and the building keeps making massive profits, there’s a decent chance Lacob would be ready and able to afford any halfway rational payroll.
So I asked Lacob about those playoffs, with the Warriors now playing games 3 and 4 in Denver starting Thursday. Do you think that this team, now that almost everyone is finally healthy, can win the championship?
“I’m not going to make any judgments just yet,” Lacob said. “Let’s go a little further and see where we stand. Let’s go to Denver and get at least one of them out there and get this series over with and then we’ll see from there. I can make a few more announcements when we get there, but for now we just want to stay healthy and play as well as we can.
“I think you would definitely have to look at what we did in the first two games and say it’s looking pretty good.”
What were your thoughts as the team went through several dips late in the season, including a 1-7 stretch in March?
“I have to say I was a bit concerned,” Lacob said. “We struggled towards the end of the season. But I think after we reset, had a week off before the playoffs started and everyone got back on the court for the first time this season… we just didn’t see that.
“It’s not baseball. This isn’t football. It’s not 50 guys or 25 guys. One man can make a big difference. They’re adding Steph Curry to what we did at the end of the year, that’s pretty good.”
Finally, I asked Lacob about the Warriors’ somewhat controversial desire to thrive on two timelines this season: to build around Curry, Klay and Draymond to make at least one more run with the old guard… and a very young group as well and gather very talented players who could take over in the future.
Almost impossible, right?
At the moment, Poole is the only younger player in a significant role at 22, although rookie Jonathan Kuminga could still get some rotation time sometime this postseason. And the Warriors are 2-0 up in the first round so far.
Is this part of the two timeline project?
“I’ll leave that to you to judge,” Lacob said. “You know where I stand. You know what I saw with Bob (Myers) and the rest of our group from the start. I don’t see it as a two timeline thing. I see it as what we have to do to be the best team we can be now and in the future. We have to think of both. I really believe in that.
“There are a few teams, I won’t say who, there are some other teams that have gone all-in with older players. And older players get injured. You have to remember that. Suppose we made a trade, traded away all our youth, cuz I don’t know, you name the guy, and they’re injured, out for the year. Every time you’re over 30, 32, 35, these people get hurt. It’s dates.
“Having a Jordan Poole turn up at 22 and a Kuminga who’s obviously incredibly talented hasn’t played that much on this show yet, but I think he’ll get his part… and (James) Wiseman is coming back next year. (Moses) Moody…I just think we’re ready for the future. And yet we are really good now.”
Then Lacob smiled again and walked into the owner’s lounge where music was playing and his guests were in high spirits. Harder times are ahead. Maybe right away. But that night, after the Warriors’ first playoff games at the Chase Center, there was also a bit of serenity.
(Photo: Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)