The Golden State Warriors won the NBA Championship Friday night – again. That’s four titles in eight years, six Finals appearances. A remarkable string of successes in an era when players switch teams like people upgrade their smartphones.
From 1995 through 2013, the Warriors made the playoffs once. They had the second-longest playoff drought in NBA history. They had two winning records in eighteen seasons.
What changed? Aside from being bad enough to be able to draft Steph Curry before twenty-three other teams?
New Owners, New Ideas, New General Counsel
Simple, they got new owners, Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, after the 2011 season. They weren’t rich ‘hobbyists,’ like many (most?) owners. They had impressive business backgrounds. Joe Lacob, the CEO, had extensive startup and Silicon Valley experience. His goals - run the team as a business, win and make money.
To do that, Lacob brought in top-notch outside advisors in both business and basketball. Then he hired a general counsel, the first in Warriors’ history and, at the time, a rarity for an NBA team.
Running the Warriors Like a Startup
Lacob ran Warriors like a startup that happened to have an established brand and a loyal customer base. The new general counsel, David Kelly, was essential to the growth and day to day operation of the Warriors. From league issues to zoning laws (the Warriors still played in Oakland in 2012) to contracts and much, much more.
The team referred to him at the time as their “basketball lawyer, startup lawyer, consumer lawyer, real estate lawyer, and media lawyer.” Kelly described his position in 2016 as “fifty percent legal, forty percent business strategy, ten percent basketball".
By now you know where we’re going with this. This is what Hopkins Centrich does, minus (unfortunately) basketball decisions (but we’re willing to learn). One of the best things about being the kind of business lawyers we are is that we have an opportunity to grow with our clients. It’s exciting, it’s fun.
David Kelly obviously has grown with the Warriors (while collecting rings), here’s his current job description from the Warrior’s website:
All legal matters affecting the company (including transactions, disputes and compliance), manages player development, salary cap management and luxury tax planning for the team, oversees the organization’s human resources and public/governmental affairs departments, assists with college player scouting, and oversees many of the company’s key projects and initiatives on both the business and basketball sides of the company, including legal matters related to the real property acquisition, entitlement, construction and operation of Chase Center and ancillary mixed-use development in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood.
We don’t scout college players or develop players, but substitute The Woodlands and Texas for San Francisco and this is a close summation of what we do on a daily business. Without parades or rings. So far.