You ever watch a Klay Thompson podium visit and kinda go, “Lol why is he like that” — with maybe a mini-smh? You know, maybe it’s when he’s starting off answering questions with long pauses: “I… thought… we… played… okay…”
Joe Lacob makes me eye-roll like that sometimes, too, such as Tuesday before the game versus Philadelphia. He had a whole host of San Francisco 49ers players in one of the lounges, surprised them with personalized Warriors jerseys, each with their Niners jersey number and name on the back, and gave a little why-is-he-like-that speech:
You guys gave me a major league heart attack, but it was a fantastic game. We all love you, man, almost as much as the Warriors. [Nobody except his family and friends laugh and one of them goes, “Joe?!?!” as if to say, “Why did you say that?”]
But we love you guys, we’re all gonna be at the game. We wish you well. Go 49ers!
So the typical semi-cringe when Lacob flexes his owner status a la Joaquin Phoenix’s Caesar character in “The Gladiator”, but that’s okay. We love you, Joe! You too, Klay! 😘 😂
And that’s what it’s all about, folks. Learning to embrace the character and personality of your boys because you know them so well. You appreciate what they do and you give them some rope when they fall back into some of their habits. This goes for Joe, Klay, Steve Kerr, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and really anybody who don’s the blue and gold, quite frankly.
It’s really a Zen level of immersion. It’s what I preach and what I will continue to preach. But I’m learning how to make small adjustments because the people who are hesitant to try this experiential way of being a fan, quite frankly, I think they’re just suffering out there, kind of stuck in the mud. More on this some other day.
Fyi those jerseys are easily customized at the Warriors Shop next to Chase Center. In attendance at the Lacob jersey presentation: Javon Kinlaw, Ji’Ayir Brown, Chase Young, Ray Ray McCloud, Charvarius Ward, Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel, Trent Williams (who did a funny selfie but for Chase Center and showed off some post-up moves) and Arik Armstead. It’s all right here in a behind-the-scenes video:
As an aside, our buddy Austin Scott of KNBR did work today at SF 49ers practice, as owner Jed York fielded questions from a reporters’ scrum in a room at Levi’s Stadium. He even nearly broke up into tears talking about how his young son was feeling very negative during halftime due to the team’s poor performance up until that point against the Detroit Lions, and York decided to toss a football around with him in the suite to lift his son’s spirits.
That got me thinking that Lacob should do more interviews with the media. Granted, this one with York was probably a one-off as well, but seeing the human side of your owner and just the franchise in general can really alleviate any tension from fans.
There was also a question about York’s relationship with Kyle Shanahan and what the reaction would be to the results of Shanahan loses another Super Bowl (reminder: he obviously has not yet won one). It sure seemed like Jed and Kyle have a tight relationship and there’s the respect that it’s just really hard to win in the NFL. I’d like to think there’s something similar going on between Joe and Steve. I’d like to think that the “Fire Kerr” brigade is way, way, way off base when it comes to behind-closed-doors reality.
Here’s a list of videos provided by Scott for KNBR, as well as one from 95.7 The Game: https://x.com/knbr/status/1753159816414183631 https://x.com/knbr/status/1753157570704142443 https://x.com/knbr/status/1753160701735289045 https://x.com/957thegame/status/1753165399045333012
I’ll do a separate post recapping all the major topics coming out of the PHI-GSW matchup, yesterday’s Kerr interview with Tom Tolbert of KNBR and today’s practice.
I should probably do more shorter posts like this, but it’s been hard to steer this LGW cargo ship and change old habits, which is the same analogy I use on the livestreams when people get outraged or impatient about why things with Golden State don’t change quickly in reaction to what’s happening on your TV screen — again, professional sports in reality and humanistic form is totally not like a video game (that’s me saying, “This isn’t NBA2K,” for the hundredth time on YouTube).
So thank you, Jed, for volunteering to face a media scrum today and remind me that what I’m doing is the right way.
👍👍💛💙