Warriors Owner Joe Lacob Fined $500,000 for Luxury Tax Comments, per Report

Warriors co-owner and team CEO Joe Lacob has reportedly been fined $500,000 by the NBA after he made critical comments about the league’s luxury tax, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The fine comes after Lacob was a guest on the Point Forward Podcast, which is hosted by Warriors wing Andre Iguodala and former player-turned-Celtics assistant Evan Turner. Lacob appeared on the show’s July 15 episode, during which he called the NBA’s luxury tax “very unfair.”

“The hardest thing of all is navigating this luxury tax, unfortunately,” Lacob said. “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,” Lacob continued. “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.”

Iguodala corrected Lacob about Andrew Wiggins, who was acquired by Golden State in a trade, but the executive stood by his main point. The Warriors had the highest payroll in the NBA last season at $346 million, which included a record $170 million in luxury tax.

The Warriors will still have Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Wiggins and Draymond Green under contract next season, with the quartet set to make over $148 million combined during the 2022-23 campaign.