Eight years ago next month, Warriors owner Joe Lacob pointed at the team's 1974-75 NBA champions banner.
"Look up there," Lacob told the crowd at Oracle Arena on Nov. 15, 2010. "That's a very lonely flag. We want another one."
Nearly a decade later, the Warriors have three more.
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Lacob told NBC Sports Bay Area's Greg Papa before Tuesday night's season opener that he imagined -- but didn't necessarily envision -- Golden State would over-deliver.
“When I watch that tape of me saying that, it was not planned and it just came out," Lacob insisted. "I always wonder whether I should have used different words or whatever, but at the end of the day, it really reflected how I felt, and how we felt.
"We're just very proud that we've been able to deliver on some promises and a lot of hard work to these great fans what they really did earn over so many years of supporting this team. All I can say is we're going to have one great final year here at Oracle [Arena] I think, and hopefully deliver another one.”
At the time, Lacob's title aspirations seemed ... a bit ambitious. The Warriors were 35 years removed from their last title at that point, and three-plus years removed from their last playoff berth in the "We Believe" season.
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"Everybody laughed. I laughed," coach Steve Kerr admitted before the game Tuesday. "I was at home like, 'Psh, c'mon, the Warriors?’ [Lacob] set the goal that night, and I think there was a young guy named Steph Curry in the building who this whole thing has sort of revolved around in many ways as it's all crystallized."
Reflecting on his own title-winning teams, Kerr added that the "first domino has to fall." Curry, like Michael Jordan in Chicago, was Golden State's first domino. Kerr then said you need a little luck, such as Draymond Green falling to the second round of the 2012 NBA Draft.
But, according to Kerr, the foundation needs to be in place in order for that to happpen. Eight years -- but not light years -- later, Kerr believes the Warriors have that.
"I think there's a structure that has to be in place [and Lacob] immediately went to work on when he bought the team with [Peter Guber], and tonight is a night to sort of reflect on that," Kerr continued, "and then all of a sudden you've got to warm up and play the Oklahoma City Thunder."