Category: Golden State Warriors Blog

Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, the Co-Executive Chairmen of the Golden State Warriors, announced today that longtime Silicon Valley venture capitalist Mark Stevens has purchased the equity interests of the team that were previously held by Vivek Ranadivé and joined the team’s ownership group as an Executive Board Member.

Ranadivé was required to relinquish his stake in the club after leading a group that purchased a controlling interest in the Sacramento Kings on May 31, 2013.

“We’re extremely excited about the addition of Mark to our ownership group,” said Lacob. “He brings an incredible track record of success in the business world, primarily as a venture capitalist in the Bay Area, and his expertise on many levels will certainly aid us in our quest to become a World Class organization. We’ve managed to take a step closer to that goal today with Mark’s arrival.”

“Mark will prove to be a tremendous asset to our organization as we strive to become one of the model franchises in professional sports,” said Guber. “We’ve managed to build a strong and well-rounded ownership group in which each individual contributes to our success, and Mark is no exception. He’s an ideal fit.”

Currently the managing partner of S-Cubed Capital in Menlo Park, CA, Stevens is also a special limited partner and former managing partner at Sequoia Capital, a global venture capital firm based in Menlo Park. He joined Sequoia in 1989 as an associate and became a partner in 1993. During his tenure at Sequoia, his investment focus areas have been in semiconductors, networking systems, software and energy. Stevens has been responsible for numerous, successful Sequoia investments including: Aspect Development, AtWeb, Billpoint, Commquest, Documentum, Mobile Peak, MP3.com, Nvidia, Pixelworks, Quicklogic, Quickturn, Stratum One, Summit Design and Terayon Communications.

“This is an incredible opportunity for me,” said Stevens. “Under the guidance of Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, the Warriors have established themselves as a top flight organization in a very short time. The future of this team and franchise is unbelievably promising and I’m looking forward to contributing my part to help us achieve our goals.”

Stevens, who was advised by Game Plan LLC in connection with his acquisition of Ranadive’s equity interests, currently serves on the Board of Directors of Nvidia and has served on the Board of Trustees of the University of Southern California since 2001 (co-chair of the Investment Committee and member of Finance and Executive Committees). He is also a member of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Board of Councilors, is the founder and chairman of the USC Stevens Center for Innovation, and serves on the Advisory board of the Harvard Business School’s California Research Center. Stevens, who is a part time lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and B.A. in Economics (both magna cum laude) from the University of Southern California in 1981, an M.S. in Computer Engineering from USC in 1984 and an MBA from Harvard University in 1989.

The Golden State Warriors ownership group consists of leaders in a wide variety of fields including: sports, entertainment, e-commerce, mobile technology, communications and venture capital.

The Golden State Warriors have named Jennifer Cabalquinto as the team’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), it was announced today.

Cabalquinto, who will begin her new duties on Thursday, August 15, will oversee all day-to-day and long-term financial planning and accounting for the organization, while reporting to President and Chief Operating Officer, Rick Welts.

Marty Glick, the Warriors’ current CFO, will remain with the organization as a Special Advisor to Ownership. In that capacity, Glick will be primarily responsible for the financing and overseeing of the financial aspects of the team’s proposed state-of-the-art entertainment/basketball venue on Piers 30-32 in San Francisco and all related development.

Cabalquinto has over 20 years of finance leadership experience in a variety of start-up, turnaround, and high growth business environments. Most recently, Cabalquinto served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Universal Studios Hollywood since 2007. In this role, she was responsible for NBC Universal’s theme park and Citywalk operations in Los Angeles, California. Cabalquinto joined NBC Universal as part of the Telemundo acquisition. At the time of the acquisition, she served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for the Telemundo Station Group in Miami, Florida. With the integration of Telemundo, Jennifer was relocated to Los Angeles to serve as Vice President Finance for NBCU’s Los Angeles television stations – KNBC, KVEA and KWHY. Before joining Telemundo, Jennifer worked for Ernst and Young, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and Future Tech International in auditing, financial planning and reporting and controllership roles.

“Jennifer’s experience in the entertainment industry and overall financial leadership experience is a great addition to our team,” said Welts. “Her expertise will be a tremendous asset as we continue to move forward with building a World Class organization.”

The Golden State Warriors have waived forward/center Dwayne Jones, guard Scott Machado and guard Kevin Murphy, the team announced today.

Jones was signed by Golden State as a free agent on the final day of the 2012-13 regular season (April 17, 2013) and appeared briefly in two playoffs games with the Warriors. Prior to signing with the Warriors, he had appeared in 21 games for the Texas Legends of the NBA Development League, averaging 8.8 points, 12.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists per contests.

Machado was originally signed by Golden State as a free agent call-up from the Santa Cruz Warriors on April 7, 2013, and appeared briefly in five playoff games with the Warriors. He also appeared in six games with the Houston Rockets last season and spent significant time in the D-League, averaging 8.9 points, 2.5 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game in 28 contests combined between Santa Cruz and the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

Murphy was acquired from the Utah Jazz on July 10, 2013, as part of the three-team trade highlighted by the acquisition of Andre Iguodala. As a rookie last season with the Jazz, Murphy appeared in 17 games and averaged 0.9 points in 3.1 minutes per contest. He also appeared in 14 games with the D-League’s Reno Bighorns, averaging 13.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 28.6 minutes per contest.

Golden State’s roster currently stands at 13 players.

The Golden State Warriors have signed free agent guard Toney Douglas to a contract, the team announced today.

Douglas, 27, split last season between the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings, appearing in 71 games and posting averages of 7.5 points, 1.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.00 steals in 18.1 minutes per contest.  The 6’2” guard scored in double-figures 26 times, including a season-high 22-point effort in 28 minutes off the bench for Houston versus the Los Angeles Lakers on December 4, 2012.  Additionally, Douglas averaged 11.0 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.41 steals in the 29 games in which he logged 20-or-more minutes.

Originally drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 29th pick 2009 NBA Draft, Douglas owns career averages of 8.6 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 20.3 minutes in 246 career regular-season games with the New York Knicks (2009-12), Houston Rockets (2012-13) and Sacramento Kings (2012-13). The Florida State product had his finest NBA season in 2010-11 with the Knicks, appearing in a career-high 81 games and posting career-best averages of 10.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 24.3 minutes per contest.  That season Douglas led the Knicks in three-pointers made (143), including a franchise-record-tying nine three-pointers (in 12 attempts) against Memphis on March 17, 2011.

Douglas will wear uniform #0.

The Golden State Warriors have confirmed the deal struck earlier this week with free agent Marreese Speights.

The announcement Friday gives Golden State another versatile power forward off the bench whom they hope can fill the void left by Carl Landry, who agreed to a four-year, $26 million contract with the Sacramento Kings last Saturday…

Speights’ deal is for three years and about $11 million. The third year is a team option.

Reported by the Associated Press

The Golden State Warriors have picked up the team option on Head Coach Mark Jackson’s contract for the 2014-15 season, the team announced today.

This past season, his second as head coach of the Warriors, Jackson guided his team to a 47-35 regular-season record, finishing second in the Pacific Division and earning the sixth seed in the Western Conference Playoffs.  In doing so, he became just the fourth Warriors head coach since 1970 to lead a team into the postseason, joining Alvin Attles, George Karl and Don Nelson. Additionally, Jackson became the first Warriors coach to win at least 47 games in his second full campaign at the helm since 1971-72, when Attles directed Golden State to a 51-31 record during his second full season as head coach.

After finishing 2011-12 with a 23-43 record during Jackson’s debut campaign, the Warriors posted the second-highest winning percentage improvement in the NBA this past season, improving from .348 to .573 in 2012-13 – an improvement of +.225 that was bested only by the Brooklyn Nets (+.266). This winning percentage improvement also marks the third-largest year-over-year improvement in franchise history, trailing only the +.280 improvement made from 1987-88 (.244) to 1988-89 (.524) and the +.229 improvement made from 1952-53 (.174) to 1953-54 (.403).

Since being named head coach of the Warriors on June 6, 2011, Jackson has placed an emphasis on defense and rebounding – two areas where the team had been traditionally weak.  To that end, Golden State saw major statistical improvements this past season in several important defensive categories, including opponents’ field goal percentage (fourth in NBA; 20th in 2011-12), opponents’ three-point percentage (seventh; 28th in 2011-12), defensive rebounding (first; 24th in 2011-12) and rebounds per game (third; 28th in 2011-12).

In the 2013 NBA Playoffs, Jackson’s squad posted a First Round victory over the Denver Nuggets in six games, becoming just the second Warriors team to advance to the Western Conference Semifinals in the last 22 years.  In the Semifinals, Golden State won two of the first four games of the best-of-seven series against the San Antonio Spurs before falling to the eventual Western Conference Champions in six games, 4-2.  In the Spurs series, the Warriors earned multiple wins in the Semifinals for the first time since 1977 and, in Game 2, posted their first road victory over the Spurs since February of 1997, snapping a 30-game losing streak in San Antonio.