The Victory Machine

Book excerpt: "The Golden State Warriors are the envy of the modern NBA. Chasing their third consecutive championship, they have assembled an incredible wealth of athletic talent, lead the league in merchandise sales, and are planning to move into a glitzy new stadium next season. Their owner, Joe Lacob, regularly hosts the top CEOs and influencers of Silicon Valley in his box, fashioning himself into one of the most powerful men in the world. Yet inside the organization, there is considerably more strife. In this breakthrough work of reportage, star NBA reporter Ethan Sherwood Strauss investigates the team's culture, its financial ambitions and struggles, and the toll that being a super-team can take. In so doing, he not only rewrites the story of the Warriors, but reveals how the Darwinian business of NBA basketball really works. Reconstructing the deals that lured Steph Curry away from Nike and Kevin Durant away from Oklahoma City, Strauss shows how the smallest mistakes can define success or failure for years. And, as he looks ahead to the 2020 season, Strauss ponders whether this organization can survive its own ambitions"--