Golden State Warriors: Chris Cohan vs Joe Lacob, Who's the Worse Owner?
A mere mention of the name "Cohan" near any Warriors fan is an assault, first to the mind then moving south to the heart.
His track record (two winning seasons, one playoff trip in 15.5 seasons at the helm) says enough, but Cohan-led teams seemed to do more than simply pile up forgettable seasons.
Cohan nearly ripped the hearts out of one of the most passionate fan bases in professional sports. After watching a seemingly endless carousel of coaches pace the Warriors sideline (Rick Adelman, P. J. Carlesimo, Garry St. Jean, Dave Cowens, Brian Winters, Eric Musselman, Mike Montgomery and Don Nelson), it was hard to just find an identity of Cohan's clubs.
Good players came and left the Bay just as often as these coaches did; Cohan's tenure saw the departures of Jason Richardson, Antawn Jamison, Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington, Baron Davis, Jamal Crawford, Gilbert Arenas, Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall, Joe Smith and Latrell Sprewell.
Granted in the professional sports world, players have a tendency to come and go (although the NBA sees far more loyalty than baseball or football). But generally, the teams who lose their star players get something in return be it young prospects, financial relief or a combination of the two.
The Warriors somehow would bring back neither.
Any financial relief that came the Warriors way went straight to Cohan's pockets.
He would not use trade exceptions. He would not fork over any money if the luxury tax crept close. As quickly as his club's loyal fans were rewarded by the "We Believe" squad that made an improbable run into the Western Conference Semifinals in 2006-07, Cohan and his cohorts had dismantled the team in less than two seasons.
Now for Lacob (and Peter Guber), the jury is out and it should be out for at least a couple seasons. Their ownership group did not officially gain ownership until after the regular season started, so they had no shot at making any franchise-altering moves.
But Warriors fans can agree that Lacob's tenure has gotten off to a rocky start.
For starters, he's not the man that fans wanted Cohan to sell the team to. Oracle owner Larry Ellison (a savvy billionaire whose company owns the naming rights of the arena the team plays in) had been publicly interested in acquiring the Warriors for several years and fans saw the desire (and checkbook) for a quick turnaround.
But Lacob did not do himself any favors since taking over.
He alienated the common man Warriors fan when he implied that only season ticket holders were true fans during the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.
He further frustrated Warriors fans after the team stood pat at the trade deadline (save for moving Brandan Wright and Dan Gadzuric for a second round pick and Troy Murphy's expiring contract) and later commented to Bay Area News Group's Tim Kawakami that the team had a chance to acquire now-Portland Trailblazer Gerald Wallace (a target in the eyes of the fan base), but passed on the deal because he was not the type of player who could help the team.
Still, in terms of the who's the worse owner, Cohan is—and it's not close.
Lacob has inherited Cohan's guys, from the front office members to the players on the floor. Only time well tell if Lacob can raise the bar from Cohan's days.
Luckily for Lacob (and any Warriors fan will tell you the same), Cohan left that bar on the Oracle Arena floor.
