NBA fines Warriors owner Joe Lacob $500,000 for calling league’s luxury tax system ‘very unfair,’

July 21, 2022 World Sports

Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob has been fined $500,000 by the league for making “unauthorized communications regarding collective bargaining,” according to Adrian Wojnarowski. The fine is one of the largest in NBA history.

Earlier this month, Lacob made an appearance on the “Point Forward” podcast with Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner. At one point, the topic turned to the Warriors’ $346 million total payroll last season, which included a record $170 million luxury tax bill. Here is what Lacob had to say:

“The hardest thing of all is navigating this luxury tax, unfortunately. I went back to New York this week for labor meetings. I’m on the committee. And you know, obviously, the league wants everyone to have a chance and right now, there’s a certain element out there that believes we “checkbook win,” we won because we have the most salaries on our team.”

“The truth is, we’re only $40 million more than the luxury tax. Now, that’s not small but it’s not a massive number. We’re $200 million over in total because most of that is this incredible penal luxury tax. And what I consider to be unfair and I’m going to say it on this podcast and I hope it gets back to whoever is listening … and obviously it’s self-serving for me to say this, but I think it’s a very unfair system because our team is built by — all top eight players are all drafted by this team.”