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Earlier today on KNBR-AM, a sports radio station in San Francisco, Warriors owner Joe Lacob gave an interview to Gary and Larry, the station's mid-morning show. While most of the interview centers around the Warriors' postseason goals and the arena that the team is trying to build in San Francisco, Lacob also did talk about the Sparks and here's a tweet below:
Lacob on the Sparks: "We do have interest. I think they know it's a dream of ours to own a WNBA team. Think it would work well in the Bay."
— KNBR (@KNBR) January 23, 2014
The good news is that he has expressed interest in owning a WNBA team and can now be quoted on it. But the bad news is that this tweet doesn't make it sound like much progress has been made toward making the acquisition and subsequent relocation a reality.
There is no podcast of the interview that I could get from the East Coast at least right now. Therefore, there's a lot of context I don't have so maybe there is more to it.
But at the same time, you'd have to wonder if the WNBA is holding out and still waiting for an owner who would keep the team in Los Angeles, even if this owner is a smaller one not unlike Paula Madison was. That also keeps the "political climate" of the WNBA Board of Governors at six NBA team owners and six non-NBA team owners like we discussed in Day 13. So maybe there is someone new in the mix.
Or perhaps Lacob wants to buy the team at a lower price and is waiting for the league to let him do so there.
Either way, it's almost two weeks since Day 11 of Sparks Watch when we knew how quickly the Warriors wanted to get this done. But we didn't hear much since then, neither from Lacob until today, while the league continues to say nothing on the matter.
And the clock is ticking.
Keep up with the Sparks' saga and with Sparks Watch on our StoryStream.
UPDATE at 6:00 PM ET - The podcast of the interview is here. It's 45 minutes long.
UPDATE at 11:20 PM ET - Lacob talks about the WNBA and women's basketball at the 16 minute mark until the 22 minute mark. In the beginning, he talked about owning the San Jose Lasers of the ABL. And initially, he sounded noncommittal about buying the Sparks, and said his number one priority was to keep the Warriors in position to compete and this is to be expected. He also alluded to a "24/7/365" mentality about basketball in the Bay Area.
I don't want to read too much into a nearly six minute stretch regarding women's basketball in a 45 minute podcast, but Lacob also sounded very energetic when talking about Nneka Ogwumike and Candace Parker. And he went so far to say that the WNBA can do "extremely well" and "particularly here" in the Bay Area. So, if nothing else, Lacob is very passionate about women's basketball and if this snippet doesn't tell Laurel Richie and the WNBA that he wants the Sparks right now, I don't know what does.
