Golden State Warriors proprietor Joe Lacob has lastly opened up concerning the tense contract standoff with Jonathan Kuminga that consumed a lot of the group’s offseason, and he didn’t maintain again.
“Folks have to make use of no matter they’ll in a negotiation — and they also do,” Lacob mentioned, talking on The TK Present. “It’s like social media; you need to have a thick pores and skin to cope with all these items. I used to be aggravated that it didn’t occur sooner. I feel it may have, and perhaps ought to have. However look, it’s the way in which these items go.”
After months of hypothesis and stress, the Warriors and Kuminga agreed to a two-year, $48.5 million deal that features a group possibility for the 2027–28 season – a construction that provides Golden State future flexibility whereas locking in one in every of their most promising younger gamers.
“It went on a very long time — longer than we might have preferred — but it surely received achieved type of how we thought it might,” Lacob mentioned. “I’m shifting on. It was what it was, however on the finish of the day, we received the group we wished for this 12 months, and we’re joyful.”
Regardless of frustrations, Lacob made it clear he’s nonetheless all-in on Kuminga’s potential.
“I like him as an individual and as a participant,” he mentioned. “Clearly, it hasn’t match totally completely at occasions with what Steve [Kerr] perhaps wished or desires, however at occasions it has labored nicely. We simply should let it play out. It’s time for basketball now. What occurs on the ground is what issues.”
Lacob credited basic supervisor Mike Dunleavy Jr. for dealing with the back-and-forth with Kuminga’s camp, led by agent Aaron Turner, who publicly pressured the group for a deal.
“It was his negotiation,” Lacob mentioned. “I do know everybody likes to assume I’m out right here controlling each little element, however I’m not. It’s his job, and he performed it his approach. Backside line, he received to the tip consequence that he felt we might get to.”
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