Warriors owner Joe Lacob famously said that a key to the Golden State Warriors’ recent success is that the organization is “light years ahead,” of the rest of the NBA. According to Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry, however, it’s mostly to do with luck.
Lasry told The Athletic that the Warriors initially wanted to trade Stephen Curry, not Monta Ellis, for Andrew Bogut in March of 2012, but that Milwaukee put the kibosh on the deal due to concerns over Curry’s ankles. Curry played in just 26 games that season, and underwent surgery on his right ankle in April 2012. The Warriors ultimately traded Ellis for Bogut in a move that was widely criticized by Warriors fans at the time.
“I don’t know if they can be light years ahead if they traded Steph Curry to the Bucks for Andrew Bogut,” Lasry says of a proposed trade before he purchased the Bucks, which has been reported as both fact and urban legend. “That was the deal. But the Bucks’ medical staff didn’t think Steph’s ankle would hold up. That killed the deal.
So, I don’t know if that’s being light years. It’s luck. And that’s fine.” Lasry then smiled and added, “I think we got rid of that medical staff when we bought the team.”
The reason the story is referred to as “both fact and urban legend” is because Lasry didn’t but the Bucks until a year after the trade took place.
Bob Myers was promoted as the team’s general manager on April 24, 2012. Curry went on to have a breakout season in 2012-13, and became a perennial All-Star from then on.