Getty Joe Lacob
Joe Lacob is the controlling owner and CEO of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. The Massachusetts native is married to Nicole Curran and he has four children, two sons and two daughters, from a previous marriage. He currently lives in Atherton, California.
Here’s what you need to know about Joe Lacob’s family:
1. Joe Lacob Grew Up in New Bedford, Massachusetts Until the Age of 14 & His Parents Were Both Very Hardworking
Lacob was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1955. His parents are Sid and Marlene Lacob, and he has a younger brother named David Lacob. For the first 14 years of his life, Lacob lived in New Bedford, which used to be an important port city in the whaling industry. His father Sid worked at a paper products plant and his mother Marlene worked nights at a local goods store, WBSM reported, and he said he rarely saw them because they were always working.
Everything changed when Lacob was 14. The manufacturing plant where his father worked was shut down and Sid Lacob was retained as the company’s only employee and sent to Anaheim, California, East Bay Times wrote. The family moved to California and Lacob quickly became a Los Angeles Lakers fan and began working odd jobs in order to make as much money as possible to be able to attend college.
Lacob worked as a dishwasher and also began selling peanuts at California Angels’ games at the stadium in Anaheim. Ethan Sherwood Strauss wrote in his book “The Victory Machine: The Making and Unmaking of the Warriors Dynasty” that Lacob said he sold peanuts there for seven years. “Those days you had to sell,” Lacob said, according to an excerpt shared by Basketball Network. “You walked the aisles, you threw the peanut bags and you kept the quarters.”
Lacob said he was “very poor” and grew up with nothing except a thick skin from “growing up in New Bedford in what, to be very frank, wasn’t the easiest neighborhood,” he told the Standard-Times. In fact, he told the East Bay Times that he paid for his entire college education himself from the money he made working odd jobs.
When asked, it’s clear that Lacob now considers himself a Californian and has no ties to New Bedford. “The idea of going back to my hometown, which was crappy growing up, nothing great, not the nicest place in my mind,” he told Strauss, “Not to say anything negative about that city, but I’ve only been back twice since 1969, once to show my kids and once to show my ex-wife. That’s it. I have no interest in going and I don’t want to be near it.”
After Lacob graduated from high school, he attended the University of California-Irvine, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and became the first person from the Lacob family to go to college. Afterward, he studied epidemiology at UCLA and graduated with a master’s degree in public health, followed by an MBA at the Standford Graduate School of Business, his bio states.
2. Joe Lacob Is Married to Nicole Curran, a Former School Teacher & Washington, D.C. Native
PIC: this is what 70 wins look like! @Warriors Primary Owner Joe Lacob & Nicole. Only 2nd team EVER in NBA to win 70
Lacob is married to Nicole Curran, a Washington, D.C. native. Curran has been open about her difficult upbringing, with her mother working around the clock to make ends meet for her daughter. She told Mercury News that her parents divorced when she was four years old and from then on, she was raised by a single mother, Barbara Levac.
The mother-and-daughter duo moved around a lot and when Curran was 13, her mother had to move into an apartment that didn’t allow kids. Curran was sent to the Milton Hershey School in Pennsylvania, a boarding school for orphans. She lived there for two years and worked every day at a dairy farm as well, according to Mercury News.
At the age of 15, Levac managed to find different housing and Curran moved back in with her mother, although she also worked different jobs to help pay the bills. The young woman enrolled at George Washington University after high school and she revealed that she was granted a full scholarship from an anonymous donor, she told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Warriors owner’s wife started her career as a public school teacher in Washington, D.C. teaching history and government, according to her bio.
After working for seven years as a public school teacher, Curran began working in the wine industry, which is a passion of hers, and she eventually moved to California and got a job with the luxury goods company LVMH. She told On the Trail that her job with LVMH was to represent Krug, Dom Perignon and Veuve Clicquot to high-end accounts in the Bay Area.
Curran and Lacob met at a golf tournament in Pebble Beach in 2006 and bonded over their love of wine, and the couple eventually got engaged, then married. Lacob told Mercury News that his wife is “tough” but also very outgoing. “She’s got a million friends,” he shared. His significant other is also involved in the Warriors organization as she works as the president of the Warriors Community Foundation board.
Because of her background as an educator, Curran has said that the position is well-suited to her passion. Mercury News reported that she has guided the foundation to focus on certain educational initiatives such as elementary literacy, access to post-secondary ecducation and early childhood development.
3. Joe Lacob’s Oldest Son Is Kirk Lacob & He’s Been Working With Him for the Warriors Since Day 1
Lacob has four children from a previous marriage, two sons and two daughters. His oldest son is Kirk Lacob, who has been involved in the Warriors organization since Lacob became a majority owner of the team. Kirk Lacob said he played basketball when he was a kid but was always self-conscious about his red hair and freckles, not to mention that he wasn’t very tall.
In an interview with SF Gate, he recalled the opponents’ coach pointing at him and asking his team, “Who’s got Glasses?” Kirk Lacob said, “You can imagine, as a little kid, you’re already pretty worried and insecure about wearing glasses. Then, this guy in his 40s points at you and calls you ‘Glasses.’ It kind of, for the first time in my life, set off this internal fire.”
That same internal fire was lit when his father named him the Warriors’ director of basketball operations and some people accused Lacob of nepotism. In fact, Kirk Lacob, who is now the team’s executive vice president of basketball operations, was a driving force behind his father’s purchase of the Dubs.
Kirk Lacob graduated from Stanford in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in science, technology and society with a focus on management science and engineering, according to his LinkedIn. After graduating, Kirk Lacob wasn’t sure what to do as a career. He had a passion for the basketball world but he also had the opportunity to work in the tech industry. Instead, he took a post-graduation backpacking trip to Europe to buy himself some time to figure it out.
At the time, the Warriors were on sale and Kirk Lacob told SF Gate that he would often email his father to let him know. Lacob ended up flying to Greece to join his son for part of his vacation and when they were there, the sale of the Warriors became official. Kirk Lacob recalled that his father turned to him and said, “Well, Kirk, we did it. I’d really like to do this with you. Do you want to join me?”
Lacob’s eldest son said he decided he wanted to join his father and wanted to work in that high-pressure environment and prove his doubters wrong. Kirk Lacob began working for the Warriors in 2010 and then made his way through the front office ranks, the Athletic reported. He’s now working as the executive vice president of basketball operations.
While speaking with SF Gate about his journey, Kirk Lacob said, “Sometimes I even pinch myself. This is something that you dream of, but dreams don’t usually become reality.”
4. Joe Lacob Has a Second Son Named Kent Lacob Who Also Works in the Warriors Organization
Lacob’s second son is Kent Lacob, and like his older brother, he also works in the Warriors organization. Kent Lacob grew up playing basketball and several other sports. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that he declined an offer from the University of California-Irvine, a Division I team, to play at the Division III school Washington University in St. Louis.
He told the publication that playing basketball in college created a “simulated adversity” that he didn’t have in his normal life due to his family’s exceptional circumstances. “I hit the jackpot with my family, never having to worry about food or where I’d live and having an amazing support system,” he said. “It was really important to me, and in my mind, it’s something I was failing at,” he shared about his college career. “I wasn’t playing and I couldn’t figure out a way to get on the court.”
He said he learned about having a good work ethic and how to influence the game from the sidelines as a good teammate and leader. Kent Lacob ended up getting named team captain.
When Kent Lacob was attending Washington University in St. Louis, his father donated $1 million to fund a new sports management program. He told Haute Living, “I wanted to do something because of the great job they did with him.”
Kent Lacob graduated in 2015 with a degree in philosophy-neuroscience-psychology with a minor in commercial entrepreneurship, his LinkedIn states, after which he decided to join his father and brother in the Warriors organization. He began as a coordinator of basketball operations and then made his way up the ranks.
After four years in that position learning everything he could, Kent Lacob was named the general manager of the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League. He excelled there, the former assistant general manager said. Ryan Atkinson, who was promoted to general manager after Kent Lacob’s departure, told the Chronicle, “He doesn’t treat Santa Cruz like a G League team. It’s more like the NBA’s 31st team. He’s always thinking: ‘Why not? Why can’t we do this?’ Then, he finds ways to make it happen.”
Kent Lacob now works as the executive director of team development for the Warriors, his LinkedIn states. Looking back at his progression, Lacob said his son has been “spectacular.” He told the Chronicle that Kent Lacob “has tremendous likability, has done an incredible job of assembling talent and has a hell of a work ethic.”
5. Joe Lacob Has 2 Daughters & One Works in the Bioscience Industry & the Other Works as a Producer & Screenwriter
Lacob has two daughters, Kayci and Kelly Lacob, who have also both excelled in their education and careers. Kelly Lacob obtained her bachelor’s degree in human biology at Stanford, then attended John Hopkins University from 2015 to 2016 and received her master’s degree in bioengineering innovation and design, her LinkedIn shows. From 2018 to 2020, Kelly Lacob studied at Stanford once more and graduated with an MBA.
Her profile shows that she currently works for Mammoth Biosciences as director of project management. According to the company’s website, its goal is to “Deliver on the promise of genetic medicine to detect and cure disease.” Kelly Lacob also spent time abroad, studying in both Cape Town, South Africa, and Moscow, Russia. She also spent around two years with the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Uganda, according to her online bio.
Kayci Lacob is a movie and TV screenwriter and producer as well as a photographer. Her LinkedIn states that she studied at Stanford, where she graduated in 2017 with a bachelor of science in human biology with concentration in earth sciences and a minor in studio art. She returned in 2020 and obtained a master of arts in earth systems, her profile shows.
Her profile indicates that she worked for over two years as a project manager and brand coordinator for Beats by Dre but it now appears as though she’s focusing on her own creative pursuits.
Kayci Lacob has a website for her photography, where she states in her bio that her passion is “sustainability & conservation, acting & filmmaking, interior and architectural design, and travel.” She wrote that she was also volunteering for animal rescue services by donating photography services.