Tag: Kirk Lacob

Report: Joe Lacob expected to seek more prominent roles for son, Kirk and Mike Dunleavy Jr.

Joe Lacob is reportedly expected to seek more prominent roles in the front office for his son, Kirk, and current VP of basketball operations, Mike Dunleavy Jr.

A new era is underway for the Golden State Warriors. On Tuesday, the longtime General Manager and President of Basketball Operations, Bob Myers, stepped down from his role with the Warriors.

With the Warriors now in search of a new general manager and lead decision-maker in the front office, internal names are already beginning to surface for owner Joe Lacob.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Lacob is expected to seek more prominent roles for his son, Kirk and Mike Dunleavy Jr. Kirk Lacob currently serves as an executive vice president of basketball operations with the team while Dunleavy Jr. is the Warriors’ current VP of basketball operations. 

Via @MarcJSpears on Twitter:

Dunleavy Jr. reportedly represented the Warriors at the NBA GM meetings in Chicago in early May. After playing in the league until 2017, Dunleavy Jr. was hired by the Warriors’ front office as a scout in 2018. Dunleavy Jr. has continued to rise through Golden State’s front office, being promoted to assistant general manager and vice president of basketball operations. 

Lacob, the son of Warriors owner, Joe, has been with the organization since 2010. Lacob has been in Golden State’s assistant general manager role along with vice president of GSW sports ventures. Lacob has also worked closely with Golden State’s G League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors. 

With a franchise-legend in Myers stepping down, whoever takes over the reigns in Golden State’s front office with have large shoes to fill before a pivotal offseason gets underway in the Bay Area. 

This post originally appeared on Warriors Wire! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! 

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Bob Myers’ Warriors exit likely means owner Joe Lacob’s son will gain more team control

Kirk Lacob has worked for Golden State for more than a decade.

Golden State Warriors executive Bob Myers is stepping down from his position, he told ESPN.

Myers, who was the president f basketball operations and general manager for Golden State, spent 12 years with the organization. He was highly influential in creating one of the most successful stretches of winning in recent NBA history.

Golden State will not have an easy time replacing Myers, who helped lead the team to win four titles over the course of the past eight seasons. But, per league insider Adrian Wojnarowski, the ownership group already has some succession plans prepared for the post-Myers era (via ESPN):

“With Myers’ departure, Warriors owner Joe Lacob is expected to seek more prominent roles for his son, Kirk, an executive VP of Basketball Operations, and VP of Basketball Operations Mike Dunleavy Jr.”

Joe Lacob became the majority owner of the Warriors in 2010. His son, Kirk, began working for the team not long after graduating from Stanford. Before his father ever had any affiliation with the Warriors, Kirk says he was offered an internship to work in the video room for the Phoenix Suns.

Kirk has over a decade of experience with the team, including experience as the general manager of their G League affiliate. He was promoted to become assistant general manager in 2012 and became the executive vice president of basketball operations in 2019.

Tim Kawakami shared more details about Kirk last year (via The Athletic):

“It’s always been generally assumed that Kirk is the heir apparent. He’s obsessive about basketball. He’s put in the work — he’s the one who was assigned to show why a G League affiliate would work for the Warriors, he arranged the purchase of the team, moved it to Santa Cruz and ran it for a few years, helping to make it a vital part of the Warriors’ holdings.”

According to Kawakami, Kirk is the “basketball ops staffer who argues with his father the most” when it comes to basketball decisions.

Last year, Kirk was named to The Athletic‘s NBA 40 under 40 series.

Earlier this year, The Athletic‘s Shams Charania and Anthony Slater reported that Kirk’s power with Golden State “stretches throughout the basketball and business operations” and that he profiles more as an “owner-in-waiting” than a general manager.

Kirk’s brother, Kent, is considered a ‘”rising voice” on the basketball side and works as the director of team development.

[lawrence-related id=2044260,847125,692990,707716]

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, …

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, NBA teams are not allowed to meet face-to-face with draft prospects. The Warriors — who are guaranteed to land a top-five pick — also can’t bring any of the top players to Chase Center for private workouts. Fortunately for members of Golden State’s front office, they can take advantage of modern technology. “We can do RingCentral video interviews with players. That’s been great actually. That has been really great,” Warriors executive VP of basketball operations Kirk Lacob, said Tuesday morning on 95.7 The Game. “We’ve gone through — on man — over 100 players, maybe, at this point. We’ve just never had the opportunity to do that. This has been totally different, but not necessarily bad.”