Report: Lacob led Warriors’ ‘cold’ negotiations with Klay

Report: Lacob led Warriors’ ‘cold’ negotiations with Klay originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Warriors owner Joe Lacob reportedly played a major role in the team’s inability to meet eye-to-eye with Klay Thompson during contract negotiations.

The Athletic’s Anthony Slater reported Tuesday that Lacob intentionally having poor communication resulted in an interesting and unsuccessful game with Thompson, adding to a string of questionable approaches in recent seasons that cost the Warriors two home-grown stars (Jordan Poole and Thompson) in exchange for virtually nothing but heartache.

Thompson, rightfully so, wanted respect and effort from Lacob and the Warriors after all the team had accomplished during their partnership. Slater further explained why the Thompson era in Golden State ended sourly in an article published on Tuesday.

“The substantial relationship fracturing that led to this split points the microscope at upper management,” Slater said. “Controlling owner Joe Lacob led a front-office effort to take a cold, mostly uncommunicative approach to Thompson’s next contract in his three summers of extension eligibility, team sources said, which isn’t separate from their norm.

“Lacob has done similar in the past with [Steph] Curry, [Steve] Kerr, Bob Myers, Andre Iguodala and [Draymond] Green, using dwindling time as a weapon but ultimately paying up (he put a substantial offer on the table for Myers) after a staring contest.

Waiting game, staring contest, freeze tag — whatever Lacob tried to pull off again, this time on Thompson, didn’t work.

The Warriors found success waiting for Curry, Kerr, Iguodala and Green to sign extensions that worked for all parties. However, Golden State didn’t anticipate Thompson’s freestyle approach that valued momentary emotions and respect over corporate knowledge that Green and Iguodala, for example, carried into their negotiations.

Thompson simply marches to the beat of his own drum. And he wasn’t feeling the Warriors’ intentional quietness.

“Iguodala’s (in 2017) and Green’s (in 2023) are the two parallel situations that have popped up most in…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/report-lacob-led-warriors-cold-214600730.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2024-07-02 21:46:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.