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Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts

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Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#1 » by LYearsAhead » Mon Sep 6, 2021 4:23 pm

In general, I think transparency in sports is severely on the decline. Teams are in general not honest anymore about a lot of things. They look to get through their media sessions rather than tell the media the truth.

Joe Lacob did that one interview this summer where he talked about "bridging the gap." But nothing is ever really explained to anybody in a clear way.

I never feel like any of these press releases put out by sports teams really show a team's thinking or direction.

Even when Draymond got suspended a couple of years ago...Bob Myers comes out at the press conference and says "Draymond's actions rose to the level of suspension."

That typically happens when somebody gets suspended...their actions typically rise to the level of suspension.

There's no real honest dialogue from sport's teams any more on anything though.

So I take everything with a grain of salt. If teams want to enter a rebuild, they don't chronicle it.

They suddenly recognize it right before the season starts and trade core players to rebuilding teams like Orlando, Houston, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City.

Transparency is something that left sports long ago. Post game press conferences today and media interviews are filled with coaches and general managers either saying no information at all to prevent controversy...or giving the media the platitudes they think the media wants to here.

Agree or Disagree?
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#2 » by ChuckDurn » Mon Sep 6, 2021 5:28 pm

LYearsAhead wrote:In general, I think transparency in sports is severely on the decline. Teams are in general not honest anymore about a lot of things. They look to get through their media sessions rather than tell the media the truth.

Joe Lacob did that one interview this summer where he talked about "bridging the gap." But nothing is ever really explained to anybody in a clear way.

I never feel like any of these press releases put out by sports teams really show a team's thinking or direction.

Even when Draymond got suspended a couple of years ago...Bob Myers comes out at the press conference and says "Draymond's actions rose to the level of suspension."

That typically happens when somebody gets suspended...their actions typically rise to the level of suspension.

There's no real honest dialogue from sport's teams any more on anything though.

So I take everything with a grain of salt. If teams want to enter a rebuild, they don't chronicle it.

They suddenly recognize it right before the season starts and trade core players to rebuilding teams like Orlando, Houston, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City.

Transparency is something that left sports long ago. Post game press conferences today and media interviews are filled with coaches and general managers either saying no information at all to prevent controversy...or giving the media the platitudes they think the media wants to here.

Agree or Disagree?

I agree, but it’s largely by necessity that this is the case.

The level of media and analysis that exists these days is orders of magnitude higher than it was even 10-20 years ago. If you want to have any kind of advantage against the other teams, do you want to reveal anything about what your plans may be? Certainly not. In the past, stray comments might not get picked up on, where now, nothing is missed and everything is dissected. Plus, the aggression / competitiveness of opposing execs (e.g. Morey, Masai) is a factor - if they know a team is trying to do something, they’re going to put the screws to them every chance they get.

Specifically for the Warriors, 2-3 years ago there was also a tangible shift that happened which led to this perception. The front office used to speak regularly to the local reporters (guys like Marcus Thompson, etc…..), and they basically have shut them out and now only deal with the national guys (like Woj, Shams, etc…..). I’m not sure what precipitated that, but a lot of the “true intentions” would come through the local guys, and that’s now missing. Aside from Lacob or Myers periodically going on a podcast with Kawakami, much of what the local guys project about the Warriors’ strategies and plans are from them making guesses (reading the tea leaves) rather than with inside information.

So yeah, things are a lot less transparent, and I wouldn’t expect that to change.
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#3 » by Stern » Mon Sep 6, 2021 5:52 pm

Distrust because the media twist, misquote, and write what they want to write, eg Marshawn Lynch.
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#4 » by GSWFan1994 » Mon Sep 6, 2021 6:47 pm

OP has 4 posts, all of them about the same thing: link

Maybe you should check the older thread, there were more replies there.
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#5 » by whatisacenter » Mon Sep 6, 2021 6:55 pm

GSWFan1994 wrote:OP has 4 posts, all of them about the same thing: link

Maybe you should check the older thread, there were more replies there.


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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#6 » by Xplatformer » Mon Sep 6, 2021 6:56 pm

I've been watching sports for over 40 years. Transparency is something I've never associated with a professional sports team. I don't see why it would be any more popular now, when how things are run in a professional sports organization has never been more openly scrutinized.

I don't need an open window into the Warriors, Steelers, Fulham or UVA.

I need them to win games and look like want to continue to win games. Obviously imo.
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#7 » by xdrta+ » Mon Sep 6, 2021 7:41 pm

Why would a Nets fan care so much about "transparency" from the Warriors. Puzzling.
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#8 » by LYearsAhead » Mon Sep 6, 2021 8:28 pm

It is true that I created another thread on this two months ago. It's actually the only other thread I've ever created on this sports forum.

I don't want to bore people with my thesis as a graduate student and why I'm interested in this topic.

The point of this thread, as well as the thread I created two months ago, is that sports teams are moving far away from transparency.

And if more fireworks happen in free agency before that start of this season that begin to contradict a team's statement's all summer...that's just a continuation of a pattern that has been growing exponentially in recent years.
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#9 » by DevinVassell » Mon Sep 6, 2021 8:55 pm

Lacob is ok... but Bob Myers makes me want to gouge my eardrums out. He is especially bad IMO. Politician level.
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#10 » by GQ Hot Dog » Mon Sep 6, 2021 8:56 pm

LYearsAhead wrote:It is true that I created another thread on this two months ago. It's actually the only other thread I've ever created on this sports forum.

I don't want to bore people with my thesis as a graduate student and why I'm interested in this topic.

The point of this thread, as well as the thread I created two months ago, is that sports teams are moving far away from transparency.

And if more fireworks happen in free agency before that start of this season that begin to contradict a team's statement's all summer...that's just a continuation of a pattern that has been growing exponentially in recent years.


Teams generally are operating in opposition to one another, therefore making information about the direction of the team publicly accessible comes with certain considerations. In fact, much of the information put out there I and most of the posters here understand almost always incorporates an element of deception.

An example is when Josh Giddey's father told a reporter that the Warriors had informed him that they would take Josh if he was available at #7. I suspect they did that intentionally because they knew that the father would have every incentive to put it out there that if another team wanted Giddey they would have to select him #6 or higher. OKC took the bait, selected him at #6 and we got our guy Kuminga at #7.

The Warriors have become known for that sort of stuff and they've made a bit of an art form out of it. Two drafts ago the first leak I recall hearing was that we were high on Haliburton. Nobody expected us to pick Haliburton at #2 which indicated to me that the Warriors were telegraphing that they were willing to trade out of #2 for a reasonable price. That wasn't a lie, it was the truth but there was a kernel of deception in it in that we weren't so enamored of Haliburton that we had to pick him no matter what, what the FO was really trying to say without coming out and saying directly was that we weren't terribly impressed by the options at #2.

So no matter what an FO says, whether it's the truth or not, what you're not getting is transparency. Smart FOs go out of their way to make sure nobody is totally sure they know what the FO is doing or thinking.
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#11 » by xdrta+ » Mon Sep 6, 2021 9:01 pm

Why would teams be transparent about their plans? It seems obvious that would be a terrible strategy. And I seriously doubt it is any different now than it was 40 years ago, or whenever. Only a blockhead would let another team know what they plan to do.
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#12 » by B-King » Tue Sep 7, 2021 1:00 am

The Warriors have been very transparent on their willingness to spend and have followed through with that commitment. Other than that, I don't expect them to telegraph anything else. Especially with drafts and transactions. Players now a days get too caught up with social media and the noise it generates. It can't be helped and I don't really know if there is a right way to navigate all this. It is very situational.
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#13 » by azwfan » Tue Sep 7, 2021 1:35 am

LYearsAhead wrote:It is true that I created another thread on this two months ago. It's actually the only other thread I've ever created on this sports forum.

I don't want to bore people with my thesis as a graduate student and why I'm interested in this topic.

The point of this thread, as well as the thread I created two months ago, is that sports teams are moving far away from transparency.

And if more fireworks happen in free agency before that start of this season that begin to contradict a team's statement's all summer...that's just a continuation of a pattern that has been growing exponentially in recent years.

I'd personally be more interested in the thesis as my response to teams not being transparent is: "duh".
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#14 » by LYearsAhead » Tue Sep 7, 2021 2:12 am

My thesis is on the "implicit contract" or "hidden contract" the media and organizations have in our society today...especially in sports.

A contract where people in the press continually recycle questions they've asked before and organizations (like sports teams) are encouraged to stifle new thoughts and opinions and opt for the same repeated quotes in choosing their response based on what they believe the question from the reporter was designed to elicit.

It's still a work in process but a thesis I'm committed to. It's not a thesis that is going to shock the world.

I guess we'll have to wait for the Warriors are going to do in the next few weeks for something to shock the world.
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#15 » by FNQ » Tue Sep 7, 2021 2:22 am

lol you think transparency is on the decline?

When I was 18 and worked indirectly for my 1st pro sports team my innocence was shattered, repeatedly, by all the old timers sharing stories that have never ever made the public, and would dominate headlines if they happened today. Its insanely harder to do that today, and the only way you'd think different is because more teams get caught up in their own BS because everyone has a recording device these days and because the internet makes anonymous sourcing much easier

It seems like this post was more a complaint about how PR works, where you highlight the good, downplay the bad, and keep focus where you want it. Just like every other business on the planet, hell just like the majority of the people on the planet. I'm not sure what the endgame here is.. but this definitely fits the age timeline. Grad student, couldn't be more than 25 years old or so.. so you don't really have a frame of reference here for the past. You are used to having information at the ready in any way you want

So much so that a team doing moderate PR work is a focus or a larger statement on transparency.. its not. Because if this were true, you could tell me which famous Oakland Athletic used to have ecstasy pills sitting in a candy dish while he played in Oakland.. which Raiders all-pro player showed up to a playoff game wasted on hard drugs.. which Warrior player in the 2000s was a straight up fiend (no, its not Biedrins)

There's more transparency than ever but fans still feel entitled to every aspect of the athlete's life, but unlike before, we have more of a means to get it than ever. The implication that its owed.. or that business strategy should be given detailed explanations otherwise its being opaque.. I dont get this at all, I think its a very naive worldview towards sports if I'm being honest. But I also have a negative view towards fans and their attitudes towards athletes/sports execs, because they feel like they can treat them as assets and not people
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#16 » by LYearsAhead » Tue Sep 7, 2021 3:30 am

FNQ wrote:lol you think transparency is on the decline?

When I was 18 and worked indirectly for my 1st pro sports team my innocence was shattered, repeatedly, by all the old timers sharing stories that have never ever made the public, and would dominate headlines if they happened today. Its insanely harder to do that today, and the only way you'd think different is because more teams get caught up in their own BS because everyone has a recording device these days and because the internet makes anonymous sourcing much easier

It seems like this post was more a complaint about how PR works, where you highlight the good, downplay the bad, and keep focus where you want it. Just like every other business on the planet, hell just like the majority of the people on the planet. I'm not sure what the endgame here is.. but this definitely fits the age timeline. Grad student, couldn't be more than 25 years old or so.. so you don't really have a frame of reference here for the past. You are used to having information at the ready in any way you want

So much so that a team doing moderate PR work is a focus or a larger statement on transparency.. its not. Because if this were true, you could tell me which famous Oakland Athletic used to have ecstasy pills sitting in a candy dish while he played in Oakland.. which Raiders all-pro player showed up to a playoff game wasted on hard drugs.. which Warrior player in the 2000s was a straight up fiend (no, its not Biedrins)

There's more transparency than ever but fans still feel entitled to every aspect of the athlete's life, but unlike before, we have more of a means to get it than ever. The implication that its owed.. or that business strategy should be given detailed explanations otherwise its being opaque.. I dont get this at all, I think its a very naive worldview towards sports if I'm being honest. But I also have a negative view towards fans and their attitudes towards athletes/sports execs, because they feel like they can treat them as assets and not people


I understand what you're saying here. But my thesis is on a different angle from this. I'm approaching transparency from the angle of how much "new information" gets put out to the public that's different from commonly known information. And with all the the outlets we have today, there's obviously a ton of that.

You could argue though that it should really be a ton more. There's a "hidden contract" organizations have with the media (teams give the responses that they believe the press wants to here). So what prevents transparency from taking place is the reiteration of soundbites and quotes that have been stated a thousand times in slightly different ways.

The reason why this relates to the Warriors...or sports teams in general...is think how Coach Kerr is programmed to keep saying "best defender here on planet earth" when a question on Draymond's defense comes up. He's maybe said it 20 times.

All this reiteration and regurgitation hurts transparency. With this hidden contract between organizations and the media, we become even more of a soundbite culture. We become a culture where organizations can keep saying the same thing over and over and avoid any real exchange of ideas.

That's the angle I'm approaching it from. Transparency and the flow of new and open ideas should be at an all time high. It's not because of what I call this "implicit contract."

That's all I want to go into this for right now.

I'll come back to this in a few weeks if a news story breaks that highlights exactly the phenomenon I'm trying to show.
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#17 » by FNQ » Tue Sep 7, 2021 3:57 am

LYearsAhead wrote:
FNQ wrote:lol you think transparency is on the decline?

When I was 18 and worked indirectly for my 1st pro sports team my innocence was shattered, repeatedly, by all the old timers sharing stories that have never ever made the public, and would dominate headlines if they happened today. Its insanely harder to do that today, and the only way you'd think different is because more teams get caught up in their own BS because everyone has a recording device these days and because the internet makes anonymous sourcing much easier

It seems like this post was more a complaint about how PR works, where you highlight the good, downplay the bad, and keep focus where you want it. Just like every other business on the planet, hell just like the majority of the people on the planet. I'm not sure what the endgame here is.. but this definitely fits the age timeline. Grad student, couldn't be more than 25 years old or so.. so you don't really have a frame of reference here for the past. You are used to having information at the ready in any way you want

So much so that a team doing moderate PR work is a focus or a larger statement on transparency.. its not. Because if this were true, you could tell me which famous Oakland Athletic used to have ecstasy pills sitting in a candy dish while he played in Oakland.. which Raiders all-pro player showed up to a playoff game wasted on hard drugs.. which Warrior player in the 2000s was a straight up fiend (no, its not Biedrins)

There's more transparency than ever but fans still feel entitled to every aspect of the athlete's life, but unlike before, we have more of a means to get it than ever. The implication that its owed.. or that business strategy should be given detailed explanations otherwise its being opaque.. I dont get this at all, I think its a very naive worldview towards sports if I'm being honest. But I also have a negative view towards fans and their attitudes towards athletes/sports execs, because they feel like they can treat them as assets and not people


I understand what you're saying here. But my thesis is on a different angle from this. I'm approaching transparency from the angle of how much "new information" gets put out to the public that's different from commonly known information. And with all the the outlets we have today, there's obviously a ton of that.

You could argue though that it should really be a ton more. There's a "hidden contract" organizations have with the media (teams give the responses that they believe the press wants to here). So what prevents transparency from taking place is the reiteration of soundbites and quotes that have been stated a thousand times in slightly different ways.

The reason why this relates to the Warriors...or sports teams in general...is think how Coach Kerr is programmed to keep saying "best defender here on planet earth" when a question on Draymond's defense comes up. He's maybe said it 20 times.

All this reiteration and regurgitation hurts transparency. With this hidden contract between organizations and the media, we become even more of a soundbite culture. We become a culture where organizations can keep saying the same thing over and over and avoid any real exchange of ideas.

That's the angle I'm approaching it from. Transparency and the flow of new and open ideas should be at an all time high. It's not because of what I call this "implicit contract."

That's all I want to go into this for right now.

I'll come back to this in a few weeks if a news story breaks that highlights exactly the phenomenon I'm trying to show.


Couldnt the Draymond thing be written off as puffery/PR? There is a psychology to repeating something over and over until its believed.. like if we, as a group here, started talking about how great Gary Payton is, repeating it on all other boards over and over, and then he gets released.. he'd be a name they'd think about because we basically rose his online stock by hammering them about how valuable he was to us. Compare that with us doing nothing, and his release would be a fart in the RGM wind

I have a better idea of what you're going for, I guess my question would be why you'd have this aimed at sports, which seems like a relatively low-stakes version of it, but is probably one of the most protected information sources out there. As someone who had a lot of plugs back in the day.. it was very easy to determine the sources of leaks of actual privileged information

I guess there wouldn't be an *easy* source now that I think about it.. I'd haave to think that some businesses that got caught distributing bad information (especially re: publicly traded companies) you'd be able to actually see behind the curtain a little bit, whereas with sports I dont know if that will happen as much. Best incidents I can think of in that case are Monta's moped adventure and Bogut's microfracture surgery
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#18 » by LYearsAhead » Tue Sep 7, 2021 5:09 am

Again, I see what you're saying.

I would say to you that we don't want press conferences and media relations in general to degenerate into reporters asking questions hoping to get a certain response and people from organizations continually willing to give that same response...no matter how hollow...over and over and over again.

It's not just the Draymond example. Although if any reporter wants to do a piece on Draymond, Coach Kerr is willing to offer up that response stating Draymond is the "best defender on Planet Earth" any night that you would like it. You just lead him into that answer...he knows what you're looking for...and he'll give you that response any night you want it.

I've watched tape on this for this project I'm working on and it's really true.

It's not just that though. If you're a reporter and you ask Coach Kerr a question about the comparisons between Steph Curry and Michael Jordan, he'll try to give a coherent answer to that too. He won't start to chuckle and say well I think that comparison is a bit over the top. He'll give them a soundbite...something that they can print.

Transparency doesn't mean organizations should be willing to sacrifice their principles...or the common sense of good taste...to give any reporter any answer that they covet. That's dangerous in a free society in my opinion.

It's up to organizations to help to clarify the record when questions are overly repetitive or lacking any context at all. From what I've studied with Golden State, and organizations recently in general, I don't see enough of that.

Anyway, I've enjoyed going back and forth with you. I'm gonna leave it at that for now.

I will come back and share more in the future.

I'm actually expecting an event to happen in a couple of weeks that highlights exactly what I'm talking about.

I hope to come back to this then. Michael
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#19 » by michaelm » Tue Sep 7, 2021 5:30 am

LYearsAhead wrote:Again, I see what you're saying.

I would say to you that we don't want press conferences and media relations in general to degenerate into reporters asking questions hoping to get a certain response and people from organizations continually willing to give that same response...no matter how hollow...over and over and over again.

It's not just the Draymond example. Although if any reporter wants to do a piece on Draymond, Coach Kerr is willing to offer up that response stating Draymond is the "best defender on Planet Earth" any night that you would like it. You just lead him into that answer...he knows what you're looking for...and he'll give you that response any night you want it.

I've watched tape on this for this project I'm working on and it's really true.

It's not just that though. If you're a reporter and you ask Coach Kerr a question about the comparisons between Steph Curry and Michael Jordan, he'll try to give a coherent answer to that too. He won't start to chuckle and say well I think that comparison is a bit over the top. He'll give them a soundbite...something that they can print.

Transparency doesn't mean organizations should be willing to sacrifice their principles...or the common sense of good taste...to give any reporter any answer that they covet. That's dangerous in a free society in my opinion.

It's up to organizations to help to clarify the record when questions are overly repetitive or lacking any context at all. From what I've studied with Golden State, and organizations recently in general, I don't see enough of that.

Anyway, I've enjoyed going back and forth with you. I'm gonna leave it at that for now.

I will come back and share more in the future.

I'm actually expecting an event to happen in a couple of weeks that highlights exactly what I'm talking about.

I hope to come back to this then. Michael

NBA basketball is a game and lack of transparency is both expected and imo justified in regard to multiple aspects including drafting intentions, game plans, sometimes injuries etc, etc. The players are also entitled to some privacy particularly in regard to health issues imo.
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Re: Transparency and the Warriors...My thoughts 

Post#20 » by and1GS » Tue Sep 7, 2021 3:51 pm

This is such an odd post.

'Joe Lacob says he wants to bridge the gap with Kuminga and Wiseman'

'I feel like Lacob isn't clear on how we're trying to bridge the gap???'

Transparency in sports means you lose leverage and diminish valuable assets. You can be transparent to a point...but this is how it's always been. I don't understand why OP thinks this is a new phenomenon?
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