“The truth is, if you look at the history, it just doesn’t happen.”

Joe Lacob said that with history in mind. In the WNBA, recent expansion teams making an impact in their inaugural run are rare. Success? That’s another half a decade wait (the closest was the 2004 Seattle Storm, who did it in the 5th year of its induction). So, running a franchise in a developing league isn’t easy; it’s a gamble that few dare to take. But after the Warriors won the 2022 championship, Golden State placed its boldest bet yet: women’s basketball in the Bay.

But the next big question was who would shape the identity?

On a hot July morning in 2024, in Las Vegas, the Warriors executive chairman Joe Lacob sat down at Jardin, an American restaurant inside the Encore hotel. A space he uses for meetings with staf

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