Skip to main content

How Warriors owner Joe Lacob earned the nickname ‘Buzz Lightyear’

Warriors owner Joe Lacob’s quote in The New York Times Magazine earned him an interesting nickname around the office. 
  • Author:
  • Publish date:

Your teams. Your favorite writers. Wherever you want them. Personalize SI with our new App. Install on iOS or Android.​

It might have seemed like a fairly innocuous quote, but members of the Warriors front office took notice. 

When New York Times Magazine ran a story in March about Warriors, members of the team’s front office took notice of one thing owner Joe Lacob said and decided he needed a new nickname.

Buried in Chris Ballard’s new profile of Golden State general manager Bob Myers is this wonderful anecdote about Lacob:

After he told the New York Times Magazine the Warriors were, “light-years ahead of probably every other team in structure, in planning, in how we’re going to go about things,” his front office peers started calling him “Buzz Lightyear” on text chains; Lacob took it well.

• MORE NBA: The little-known tennis book that shaped Steve Kerr

Be sure to check out Ballard’s full article on Myers, where you’ll also find a story about the author taking on the GM in a game of 1-on-1.