The arena is reportedly going to be built on piers 30-32 and will be paid for by private funding. The deal is said to include 1,000 parking spaces for the venue.
Surprised?
I would think a lot of people are.
With all of the hoopla surrounding the Oakland A's possible move out of Oakland and into San Jose, as well as the Oakland Raiders' constant speculation of the team inevitably moving to Los Angeles, it is the Warriors who are the first to announce the move.
The news is not official by any means. The San Jose Mercury News' Tim Kawakami reached owner Joe Lacob by email and received this response.
"We are not prepared to make any announcements at this time."
However, the report does state that the announcement of the move will come this week, and no one was expecting for Lacob to confirm the report today.
What does this say about the Golden State Warriors' franchise, though?
Within the last couple of months, the team was accused of tanking the season, and the fans booed the team's owner on center court during Chris Mullin's own ceremony.
This is Lacob's way of assuring the Golden State faithful that this team is in the right hands, and the re-location to San Francisco is the first move onto the right path.
Would former owner Chris Cohan have moved this team out of Oakland, where no superstar player wants to play?
Not likely.
Lacob is in this for the love of the game, and the love of turning teams into bonafide contenders.
Since he has taken over as team owner, Lacob has fired Keith Smart, hired Mark Jackson and a slew of qualified assistant coaches, promoted Bob Myers to general manager and made plays for Tyson Chandler, DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard in hopes of landing a big man.
He also changed the image of this team by trading Monta Ellis to the Bucks for a legitimate big man in Andrew Bogut.
Ultimately, the first step to changing this team from the cellar of the Western Conference to playoff contender was to move out of Oakland. It was the reason Howard never considered the Warriors and probably the biggest reason behind Jordan and Chandler choosing elsewhere.
No, Lacob has not made the best moves, although that has yet to be determined. But he is making moves, which is something we have rarely seen in the last 20 years of the Warriors.
Whatever else happens in the coming months and throughout next season, rest assured that Lacob's ownership has officially become a success because he was the one to pull the Warriors out of Oakland and into NBA relevancy.
No comments:
Post a Comment