Five years ago, Joe Lacob and Peter Guber purchased the Golden State Warriors from Chris Cohan for $450 million. His plan was to build a championship organization, something the organization was short of since 1975.
Not only has Lacob turned around the Warriors organization into the most exciting and the promising team for the next decade, he’s also made contributions across eight organizations to serve the youth n the Bay Area. According to Kelly E. Carter of Haute Living, Lacob possesses more than just the Warriors, he’s also the proud owner of a big heart:
Draining three-pointers in an entertaining offense earns the Warriors a whole lot more than praise; those long-distance shots serve a philanthropic purpose as well. You see, for each trey Golden State makes during the regular season, a $500 gift goes to underserved youth in the Bay Area through Hoops for Kids, just one of the successful programs started by the Warriors Community Foundation. (The Koret Foundation, Taube Family Foundation and Pacific Gas and Electric Company are partners on this initiative.) Let’s do the math for the 2014-15 season: the Dubs’ franchise-record 883 triples at $500 a pop resulted in $441,500 being distributed equally to eight organizations.
“I want that to be the largest foundation in the NBA,” declares Lacob, growing more excited by the second. “That’s goal No. 1. I want to be one of the largest private foundations in the Bay Area. We can do it. We did all this in a couple [of ] years. I’ll tell you right now, you’ll be shocked in the way it’s going to grow. We’ve got real plans for it.”
The article continues to state Lacob’s criticism of the old regime. The Warriors are an entity that the community can look to up and Lacob made sure the organization’s presence was felt.
The team’s charitable arm under the old regime was equally anemic; or as Lacob bluntly put it, “[it] was a disaster when we inherited it.”
The goal-oriented chief brought in a new executive director, José Gordon, and made his fiancée, Curran, a former teacher, the president of the Warriors Community Foundation, because she’s as passionate about education as he is. Now, the charity that makes philanthropic grants to improve educational outcomes for local, underserved youth, along with refurbishing public basketball courts and donating Warriors tickets to community groups that serve low-income children and families, is rocking and rolling just like its team.
Thanks to support from the team’s players, fans, owners and partners, last season, the foundation donated more than 12,000 tickets to local schools and nonprofits, helping to share the joy and excitement of Warriors’ home games with low-income children and families. Oakland Unified School District and San Francisco Unified School Districts were among 32 organizations to receive grants totaling more than $1 million. The foundation also dished out $175,000 to the Good Tidings Foundation to fix up basketball courts, including recent projects in Oakland, San Francisco and Richmond. And, Golden State hosted and participated in more than 230 community events.
In a short five years, Lacob was able to make all the right decisions in the front office. With their work, they have been able to put together an dominant and young core. With Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and Stephen Curry locked up, the Warriors will continue to make a splash on and off the court.