Like the majority of Dub Nation, Warriors owner Joe Lacob is having a hard time processing Klay Thompson's departure from the Bay.
Lacob joined The Athletic's "Hoops Adjacent" podcast with Marcus Thompson and David Aldridge, where he shared his honest feelings about losing a franchise icon and how he is trying to come to terms with the team's new reality.
"It is very difficult, to be very honest," Lacob said. "I think everyone knows and I've stated it a number of times that we really wanted our Big Three to remain Warriors for life and retire at the same time. It would have been an amazing accomplishment in this day and age. Who stays with their teams anymore? I grew up, and you guys probably too, that's what you looked forward to, you knew who was going to be on your team every year.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
"That was a cool thing. That was a part of fandom, the good parts of fandom."
But what once seemed like an obvious fairytale ending for Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Thompson slowly turned into a bitter and abrupt chapter closed for Thompson and the Warriors.
After 13 seasons with Golden State, Thompson decided to join forces with Luka Dončić, Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks this summer via a sign-and-trade deal involving six teams.
Lacob reportedly played a major role in the team's inability to meet eye to eye with Thompson during contract negotiations, intentionally having poor communication in an interesting yet unsuccessful game with the Splash Bro.
Golden State Warriors
But the "chess not checkers" approach didn't work on Thompson, and the peculiar strategy eventually backfired.
Despite all this, Lacob expressed his close relationship with the four-time NBA champion, and he forever is grateful for being able to get so close to a player who doesn't allow many to do so.
"I'm close to Klay, I would like to think," Lacob said. "He's a harder person to get close to than some other guys because he lives a pretty private life, but then again the public parts are pretty fun. He has a way of entertaining people, people really love him. And I love him too. I've always -- I'm just going to tell you, I used to say I am never trading Klay Thompson. It bugged me many years ago, there was all this media speculation 10 years ago when he was supposedly [going to be] traded for Kevin Love. Some day when I pen my own retrospective, I'll correct some of the truths when it comes to things that really happened then.
"But it's just inaccurately portrayed. My feeling has always been that Klay would never, ever, ever be anywhere but be a Warrior. And I thought he wanted to do that, too -- I think he did want that. And unfortunately, Bob Myers used to say this all the time, he'd say it never ends well. It's just unfortunate. It's just the way it is. Things get in the way and circumstances prevail. So this is a very difficult process. His injury, coming back from the injury, which he didn't play for two and a half of the five years of the contract, and finally came back and really worked hard to get there.
"All I can tell you is we love him. There's going to be a statue of this guy without question when they're all retired. I didn't want to see it happen, but it did."
Nothing lasts forever, and that's something Lacob and the Warriors are beginning to accept as they embark on a new chapter with a new-look roster with the same goal: winning an NBA championship.
Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast