GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 13, 2021

Joe Lacob

Peter Guber

Brandon Schneider

Media Conference

BOB FITZGERALD: -- everything that Rick has done, everything he did on the business side, he might be even a better person, someone that we all care about. He moves to an advisory role.

We promised last week that we would announce a successor very quickly. Today is that day. So today we announce a 19-year Warrior employee, born and raised in the Bay Area, I think he went to his first Warrior game when he was eight years old. The new president and COO of the Golden State Warriors will be Brandon Schneider. We will hear from the Warrior owners and Brandon.

Joe Lacob, it's a big decision. He knocked it out of the park with Rick Welts. You named Brandon Schneider the president and COO. What was it about Brandon that you made this selection, now you're entrusting him to an incredibly big job with a big organization with big dreams and big goals?

JOE LACOB: Well, thank you, Bob. It's a great pleasure to be here today to announce Brandon succeeding Rick, who is going to be obviously very difficult to replace. He's a legend in this business. Certainly been incredible. I can't even state all the great ways he's helped the organization.

In Brandon, we have someone who first of all is a leader. Whenever you have an organization, leadership is number one obviously. But you have to have other things. You have to have intelligence. Brandon is very intelligent. He is collaborative. He's well-respected. He's well-connected in the industry. He's a team-oriented guy and a builder. Look at all of the different things he's done over 18 years in this company.

One of the things I love about Brandon is he's incredibly responsive. As you know, I'm a little demanding at times. It doesn't matter what time of day or night it is, Brandon is always responsive, always has been, and I'm sure will continue to be that way. That's a very important thing in leadership and in sort of exemplifying that for the rest of the organization.

Overall if you really get down to it, what makes Brandon so interesting is as a guy that can lead this organization he is very committed. Just like the rest of us in this organization, we all know what the Warriors stand for over the last decade. We're very committed to winning, committed to be great. He is passionate, incredibly passionate, has been since he was a kid about the Warriors.

The thing I love the most about Brandon, he's relentless. He is absolutely relentless. If you talk to people around the league, he's extremely well-regarded for everything he has accomplished in all his different roles, especially as chief revenue officer over the last several years in this organization.

The final thing I'll say, it's not only important to be able to lead and manage the organization, to be all these things that I just discussed, but this person has to be able to work with me and with Peter, who as you know are very involved in the organization, continue to be very involved, want to continue to be very involved. But we have to be able to work with our president. We have a tremendous relationship. We get along so well. I think that's going to serve us well going forward.

BOB FITZGERALD: Joe, you have built companies and selected a lot of executive talent. I would say based on Rick Welts and Bob Myers and Steve Kerr, you might have a good process in place. I trust your judgment.

Let's bring on the other Warrior owner, Peter Guber. You said last week Rick Welts was the perfect casting on the script for a successful Warrior franchise. You went with the movie role, Rick played the leading man and definitely handled it. What it is about Brandon that you thought this role, he would be cast in it, and what was your decision making in selecting Brandon as president and COO?

PETER GUBER: First thank you, Joe, for your remarks. Glad to have my right-hand man partner in this journey. Thank you, Bob, for broadcasting the good news and the bad news sometimes.

Brandon, my heartfelt congratulations on your ascendency to this position. It was deserved, it was earned. We know you'll lead from your head but from your heart as well. Know you will bring your unique talents and resources to the many, many massive challenges at hand and those that will undoubtedly lead ahead.

It's important to acknowledge we had several very worthy internal candidates who we strongly considered and interviewed for this leadership position. Each of them would bring their unique perspective, style, insight, their experiences and diverse backgrounds. We are committed to depending on them to continue to lead as critical integral members of our broader leadership group. When we say strength in numbers, we meant it.

Brandon has been a trusted member of our executive team for the entire duration of our ownership. From the moment we walked in this door, Joe and I, when we very first bought the team, he had that quality of: I'll get it done.

As a trusted member of our executive team for the entire duration of our ownership, while he's still a young executive, he has nearly two decades of experience working with the NBA, also our major partner in this journey. His track record of delivering at high level in any role he has been a part of is truly impressive.

Look at his success in ticket sales, suite sales, digital marketing, corporate sponsorships and all the business activities over the last many years, aspects of our business that he directly oversees for Joe, for us. The results have been unlike anything we've seen in the history of the NBA. Top, top, top, top.

Make no mistake, these are trying times. This pandemic, a black swan event, has tinted the very core of our organization. I recall saying to Brandon early in this disruptive and terrifying period that his success in this environment will be directly proportional to the amount of uncertainty he can reasonably handle. He's done it. As a leader we experienced his confidence, success, his ability to think outside the box and be creative.

A terrific basketball team is great, but it's not enough. You have to push every corner in the box and strive for more. You have to be able to peek around corners. You stay the same in this business, you fall behind.

Brandon is constantly challenging himself and the staff to be the industry leaders on the cutting edge. That's exactly what they've done for so many years. With that kind of attitude, we put our full faith and credit in his aptitude as our new president. Game on, Brandon.

BOB FITZGERALD: Now, 19 years with the Warriors, I think you were eight when you went to your first Warrior game, born and raised in the Bay Area, then those years at UCLA, you did go to the Southland. Congratulations, Brandon Schneider, the new president and COO of the Warriors.

On a personal level, your thoughts, your wife, your family, what this means for you personally, then we'll get into the professional side.

BRANDON SCHNEIDER: Thanks, Bob. Thanks, Joe and Peter, everyone for being here today.

As you said, Bob, it means a ton to me. It means a ton to my family. Actually wanted to take a minute to say a couple of thank yous.

Thank you to my mom, to my dad, who always has been an incredible mentor for me. I had my brothers on here, I don't know why, although maybe because my three younger brothers have made me as competitive as I am today.

I wanted to thank my wife, Amanda, my four-year-old son, Tommy, for all the love and support and sacrifice that allows me to do what I do with the Warriors.

I already said it, but I'll say it again, thank you to Joe and Peter for your incredible vision and leadership. Thanks for all you've done to create the organization that we are today.

To Rick Welts, who already has been talked about, Rick, you're one of the most respected executives in sports, number one in my book, but an even better human being. Thank you for all you've done for the organization and for me personally. You are a Hall of Famer in every sense of the term.

And to all of my coworkers who are all texting, slacking and emailing me right now, you'll hear that on my computer, that's slack. Rick said it well in his press conference last week: we have the most talented staff in the industry and we're poised for even greater success in the future. I could not agree more and I look forward to all the great things that we're going to do together. So that's that.

Then to answer your question, Bob, what this means professionally.

Let me say a couple more things personally by the way. As a Bay Area kid who grew up a diehard Warrior fan, it means a ton. This is the first job I got out of college. I started here in 2002, the day before my 23rd birthday. I've really grown up with the Warriors. Grown up a lot faster over the last 10 years since Joe and Peter bought the team.

Joe and Peter could have chosen anyone for this incredible opportunity. For them to put their trust in me is humbling and a great honor. It also means I have the opportunity to lead an outstanding group of people and coworkers.

If there's one thing that I've learned, and I've learned a lot from Joe, Peter and Rick over the last 10 years, surround yourself with great people and let them do their job.

As I look around our organization, I see people from different backgrounds, different experiences, there's a few common characteristics: a bunch of people with tremendous talent, character, class, integrity. We're going to continue to have a chance to be special because of the people we employ and what they represent. I can't stress enough how important that is.

To me, that's a part of our brand. That's the brand that people want to do business with, whether that's our partners, whether that's ticketholders, business and community leaders. People like to align themselves with quality people, and I like to think our organization epitomizes that. That's really what excites me, Bob, is going to battle with these folks each and every day.

BOB FITZGERALD: I'm thinking to your first season ticket account executive meeting 19 years ago where I spoke to you and several new hires, you mentioned I grew up here, I went to high school here, I remember going to my first Warriors game. I'm thinking to myself, This is the kind of guy this franchise needs more of with the commitment Joe mentioned and with the thinking outside the box because 19 years ago this was a Warriors team playing in a rented building that was just a basketball team. Now you're going to lead a multi-entertainment company with a state-of-the-art building, with a fantastic basketball team, an Internet gaming and eSports division, and who knows where this future is heading.

Tell me the challenges and opportunities when you think of where the Warriors have come and where they're going. Pick up on Peter's outside-the-box thinking. This is business, community citizenship, this is philanthropic, this is the Warrior Foundation, a number of things on your plate now as the president.

BRANDON SCHNEIDER: Yeah, if you think about the challenges of the past, people think about this current era and all the championships and the Finals appearances everything we've accomplished. But when I started with the Warriors, we were in the middle of an 18-year span where we made the Playoffs one time. It's hard to do in a league where 16 out of 30 teams make the Playoffs.

Someone will help me do the math, but the average team made it nine or 10 times in that span. We've gone through that adversity. I'm looking at Joe as I'm saying this. I have said to him the last few years, we have a better chance of winning the championship now than we did of making the Playoffs back then, which is true and an unbelievable thing to actually say. So there's challenges there.

Then we transitioned into this current era, which has been amazing. As we look ahead, Peter alluded to this, the challenges right now, look, we're excited to welcome fans back to Chase Center April 23rd. It's been a long haul. You talk about thinking outside the box. We created an internal task force called Operation Dub Nation. Everyone I think has heard this by now. But Joe has a Masters in epidemiology from my alma mater UCLA. We were on this early, thinking about testing, how to keep our fans safe. We get to see that come to fruition in a couple weeks. We're excited for that.

When you think about getting to the new normal we're all going to experience within business and in general, there's light at the end of that COVID tunnel. But we're going to have to navigate that. What does that look like as we look ahead to next year?

Longer term, we've seen our business, as you said, evolve quite a bit in the last 19 years, I would say more acutely in the last 10 years. How do we continue on that same track? We're going to continue to do the things we do. We're going to continue to do tickets and partnerships and take care of all our constituents, create an incredible fan experience.

I'm glad you mentioned what we do in the community, our foundation. Joe's wife Nicole is the president of the board for the Warriors Community Foundation. Over $22 million in impact since the inception in 2012. That is an important part of who we are, an important part of our DNA.

We're going to have to continue to be innovative and thing about how we continue to grow. You think about the international opportunity. NFTs is something we're talking about now. If you don't know what NFT is, go log into NBATopShot, it's a good entree. That's how I started to learn two months ago.

Thinking about media rights, we have a great RSN partner with NBC Sports Bay Area. As we know people are watching more and more events online. These are all things. Sports betting. We could go on and on. All things we'll have to navigate. You mentioned challenges but also opportunities. That's how we view all these things.

So a lot to do. Basically we'll have to go into all the things that Rick didn't do over the last 10 years is what we'll focus on moving forward.

BOB FITZGERALD: We'll invite people to ask questions.

Q. Brandon, you are 41 years old. As you mentioned, this was your first job out of college. What have you learned as you've climbed the rungs with the Warriors? What have you learned about managing people, accountability, creating a culture?

BRANDON SCHNEIDER: I've learned a lot. As you noted, 41 years old. Grown up, as I said, with the Warriors.

I think one of the things that's most important I think about all of us, one of the traits we look for in our employees, is intellectual curiosity. All of us are constantly learning every day. But I think I've learned a lot about leadership.

You mentioned how to lead people and culture. Not everybody is wired the same. Not everybody has the same thought process. It's one of the beauties of what we built at the Warriors is the diverse set of employees that we have. Learning how to understand what makes different people tick. I think that's important.

To me leadership is helping people, everyone fulfill their potential and exceed their potential. Getting us all to work as a common unit, working towards the same shared goals.

So what have I learned? I think all these things. As I've watched Joe and Peter and Rick, I've watched Bob Myers and Steve Kerr, I think these are incredible people to learn from as we think about leadership and creating the culture that we want to have here at the Warriors.

Q. I'm just curious, as we are emerging somewhat from this pandemic, the financial situation of the franchise and the challenges moving forward as fans do start to leak back in and maybe some of the revenue that might re-arrive for you guys.

BRANDON SCHNEIDER: Look, it's a good point. I think we all know, we've all read, as Peter would say it's location-based entertainment. A big part of our business is creating an experience we create for our fans and hosting fans at Chase Center.

Look, it's been a brutally challenging last 13 months for our business and also for all of us as human beings. As you think about financials, we have an incredible ownership group led by Joe and Peter, incredible resources that they provide for the organization. We weathered the storm. We've worked through the toughest of it, we'd like to think. We all hope that for humanity's sake.

As we look ahead to hosting fans the rest of this year, this is a transition. We're going to start about a quarter of the building full in these first several games. It will be awesome. Our fans are chomping at the bit to come back.

Our goal has been to make Chase Center the safest venue in the country, which I fully believe we're going to do. You've heard every single person that walks into Chase Center will be vaccinated or show a negative COVID test within 48 hours of the game, something no one else is doing.

We're really geared towards next year. When we talk about financials, what this all means, is getting back to this new normal. I think Governor Newsome recently came out and said the target is to have (indiscernible) open on June 15th. Our season, the '21/'22 season starts about four months after that in October. We haven't gotten the exact dates from the NBA yet. That's really what we're geared towards, getting back to what we do best next season and beyond.

The last thing I would say, I think through this period, a testament to Joe, Peter, our leadership, we've taken an opportunity to take a step back and think outside the box. Say, look, our business has really been disrupted. What can we do that is innovative to continue to grow, diversify and expand.

I think a lot of these learnings are things we've done not only during this period but things that will carry through even as we get back to normal in '21/'22 and beyond.

BOB FITZGERALD: Joe, piggyback on that in terms of your and Peter's vision is long-term. Chase Center is going to be there a long time. You're going to own the team for a long time. And yes, revenue potentially disrupted now, but moving forward there's a tremendous amount of optimism with the Warriors and what you're planning down the road.

JOE LACOB: First of all, I want to say Brandon's answer is excellent. Passed the first test, Brandon (smiling).

The truth is, we've had a very, very challenging year, as everybody in the world of sports and entertainment has. I'm not going to lie to you, it's been an incredibly stressful time for everyone in this organization.

But the organization has pulled together and just done an amazing job of responding and getting ready for the reintroduction of fans. Hopefully that's smooth, and by the fall we're in much better shape.

The truth is, I don't want to dwell on this answer too long because the fact is that I've learned over the years, even though Anthony, who asked the question is a sportswriter, what most people want to know is are we committed to winning no matter what. No one wants to hear about how much money we're making or losing. It's something for us to worry about.

The truth is that we are committed to winning. We have great resources. It's been challenging, but we are going to continue to do everything we need to do to stay on top and be the best we can possibly be both as a business and on the basketball court.

Q. Brandon, I wanted to ask you, I know you worked closely with Rick for about 10 years, what is your relationship like with Rick? How has he influenced your career? How are you going to take that relationship and what you learned from him into this new role?

BRANDON SCHNEIDER: How is my relationship with Rick? That's a tough one to answer.

He's been an incredible mentor for me. Talked to him for a while this morning. Talked to him for a while yesterday. I've learned so much from him. I think we all have.

I said earlier he's in my opinion the best, most respected executive in sports, not just the NBA. I watched the way he does everything, to be honest with you. Actually Joe and I and Peter were talking about this this morning. Our personalities are really different. As you get to know Rick and get to know me, again, different personalities.

For me getting to learn from his style, just the way he goes about everything, the sense of calm. Joe and Peter talked about the period we've been under. I don't know if he gets stressed. I assume he does because most people do, but you never see it, right? That calm, that leadership, it's just confidence-inducing for the entire team.

The way he deals with issues with the NBA. We have partners with the other teams in the league itself. He was there for 17 years. Teams often have frustrations, wanting to have more flexibility. The NBA is incredible, by the way. But Rick is so deft at understanding how to navigate those kinds of things.

It sounds crazy and cliché to say this, but I actually watch how he handles everything, of the way we sit in meetings, he knows the answer before the rest of us, but he's not the first one to speak, right? Whatever we're talking about, he wants to hear everybody else's opinions and let people get there in their own way.

I tend to be more direct. In watching him, he lets us figure out how to navigate. Even if it's going to present to Joe and Peter, give people the leeway to learn from their mistakes, failures and successes. I can go on and on. I'm not alone in this. I think we all think this. But how Rick handles every situation.

He's probably mad at me right now because he doesn't want us talking about him. You can't help it. I mean, he's been such a big part of shaping who we are as an organization and who I am.

I cannot thank Rick enough. Fortunately I've got his cell phone number and Todd's as well. I know where they live. Even after these next three months where he's still with us every day, he's somebody I will continue to talk to as much as he'll let me.

BOB FITZGERALD: Rick will be in an advisory role. Joe, Peter and Brandon, it's the ultimate conciliary and always someone we love in the Warrior family.

Q. Brandon, having seen the good and the bad within the organization for almost two decades, what do you think sets this organization apart from other pro sports organizations across the country?

BRANDON SCHNEIDER: It's a good question. They're all good questions.

So I'll steal one line from Rick. Go back to Rick for a second. I've heard him say this so many times. It's well said. There's three things you need to be a successful sports organization: ownership, ownership and ownership. Usually follows that by saying, we hit the Power Ball.

But it's really true. I mean, if you look back, again, the culture that Joe and Peter brought in, again, hiring the best people, letting them do their job, it sounds so easy, but it just isn't. So there's that.

I'll give you a little bit more, though. The other thing I would say that's changed I think from where things were in my early days, certainly different from how other organizations run, is how business and basketball work together.

We're one organization. By the way, I would even add in our operations team. We went from Oracle Arena where we were a tenant to Chase Center where we own and operate the building. We've integrated a whole new arm of the organization that's critical to our success. A lot of teams rent. The people actually talking to your customers at the games are part of a separate organization. So for us having that be part of our core business is critical.

But then business and basketball. Bob Myers, Kirk Lacob, others, sit in on our weekly executive meetings. I'm glancing at my phone as we're talking. I just got a text from Shaun Livingston, Zaza, Pachulia, Nick. You go on and on. David. All these people on the basketball side, which we shouldn't even say, because there is no side, that work in our basketball department, are integrated in what we do as a business.

We can go on and on about how and why that's so important. It starts with Joe and Peter, but it's also the character of Bob Myers and Steve Kerr. When we were officed in Oakland, our basketball and business offices were basically the same thing. We wanted to keep that at Chase Center. You want basketball offices next to the practice facility. We're close, a 15-second walk farther, the two groups being separated. Steve Kerr is talking about how he wishes that we were even closer.

It's always been unbelievable to me that the basketball crew wants to be there involved day-to-day with what we're doing as a business. I really think that's a big part of our secret sauce.

Q. Brandon, when you just referenced doing some things that Rick hasn't done in the last 10 years, what is sort of your to-do list? You've seen the team move from Oakland, a beautiful arena gets built, everything come together where you are in charge of the whole operation, from the parking attendants to everybody in between. What are sort of your initial goals? Seeing all those things through, how special has it been to come out on the other side? I know there's some challenges ahead with welcoming fans back and things.

BRANDON SCHNEIDER: You asked a lot there, so I'll try and address all of it.

You mentioned the building of Chase Center. It's interesting, again I'm looking at Peter Guber, I'm going to steal one of his lines. But you think we spent all this time getting Chase Center built, all the approvals, working with architects, actually building the thing, building our team, all this. You hear people say, Okay, we made it to the finish line, right? We look at it the exact opposite.

Peter's line is, This is the beginning of the beginning. People joke, When is the middle of the beginning or the beginning of the middle? I don't know if we'll ever get there. Peter will have to tell us that. There's always the next opportunity.

We opened September 6th of 2019. As our team likes to say, we've actually been closed longer than we were open, which is not a super positive thing to say, but it's true.

As we look ahead, the first thing we're going to have to do is reopen Chase Center. When we opened last year, we had injuries. We all know in the Finals Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, I think the third game of the following year, Steph Curry. Last year was tough. We're looking forward to reopening Chase Center with the team we have. There is that.

I think you alluded to Rick Welts. I think a lot of what we're going to do moving forward we've built the foundation for with the team we have. I mention some of these things. What Joe often says is, Disney started as a theme park. That's really true.

The Warriors, the basketball team, will always be at the center of what we do. Our fans, our partners, the community, all these things are critical to who we are. But we think there's a lot more that we can do given the brand that we built and given the team that we have assembled. We talked about some of them.

By the way, we're going to leverage the insights and creativity of our team to think about what is that next direction as we reopen Chase Center and keeping the main thing the main thing, then we continue to evolve with this opportunity.

I think you're going to see a lot coming out of all of us here the next several years. We will always be looking ahead.

BOB FITZGERALD: I want Peter to piggyback on that. We also have Thrive City where you've talked about for years the Chase Center will be the destination point in a new era in San Francisco where I can see that park along the water, I can see the ferry service to all the concerts, events, Warriors. I can see the bars and restaurants. I can see it being a real gathering place. We don't have that in today's society very often. Peter, you speak to that so much.

PETER GUBER: It's a good question. I think Brandon, certainly Joe, have led the charge. The idea that we're a beacon and a lightning rod. The beacon, a company that's going to be a broadly based entertainment company, is what we intend to continue to be and grow. That means using our real estate investments. It means using our digital investments more widely to bring people in.

Okay, entertainment is part of our business, whether it's concerts, other attractions, the park or the restaurants, the sports bars, whatever activities that are adjacent to our physical structure. That's going to be part of what Brandon will have to help manage and lead. He has to be multi-tasking. You have to lift all these things up at the same time.

The idea that it's ahead of us, Joe and I talked about it and said we have to start over. We have to reignite that. It's not just picking up where we left off. It's been a year and four months of left off. We have to really ignite it. Part of Brandon and Joe's leadership has to bring resources and resourcefulness that are new and unique to get that started.

In fact, I'm going to leave here in two minutes and go see the Governor. No, I'm only kidding.

We need people to gather, it's a modern day campfire. That's our site. Fingers crossed. Brandon's fingers aren't crossed, ours are.

Q. Brandon, speaking specific timelines or maybe first thing on the to-do list in regards to developing the Thrive City area, obviously with the pandemic, I'm sure things have changed and the first priority is getting fans in the arena. Beyond that, what is first on your to-do list in the area?

BRANDON SCHNEIDER: You said it. I mean, first on the to-do list is focus on April 23rd, welcoming fans back to Chase Center, getting ready for next year. You alluded to Thrive City. That's already in progress. We've actually been sitting in budget presentations over the last couple weeks as we plan ahead for the next several years. A lot of great ideas in terms of how to program Thrive City.

It's going to be a process. We need to do it in a safe way. So that adds a level of complexity obviously during this day and age. We hope that continues to improve. We all think it will. So I think that's really important.

But, look, we've got more broadly the next three months with Rick as we work. This has all happened here in the last week or two, right? Time to sit back and have conversations and think about exactly what does happen on July 1st and beyond, right?

We need to be thoughtful and talk -- I've talked about the coworkers and the executive team that we have, I haven't said yet. We have in my estimation the strongest senior leadership team we've had in my 19 years we've had with the Warriors. We do have conversation, but now as we transition into the next year and beyond, to have the conversations with them as we chart our path forward.

Q. Brandon, first and foremost, I wanted to ask you, I know you're from the Bay Area, obviously that's been said, where in the Bay Area were you from? Where did you go to high school? My actual question is, your first Warriors game I think they said was eight years old, now you're the president of the organization. That's a sportsfan's dream come true. How was the whole job interview process? Was it nerve-wracking? What was the initial feelings and reaction when you got the call that you actually got this position?

BRANDON SCHNEIDER: Let me see if I can answer. You asked a few. Let me make sure I can answer that.

I grew up on the peninsula. I went to Menlo School for high school, graduated in 1997. Bob did say that I went to my first Warriors game at age eight. He's close. I was actually age seven. I believe the date was February 1st, 1987. I looked this up the other night. The Warriors beat the New Jersey Nets 150 to 147 in four overtimes. I was not there till the end of the game to my chagrin because I had school the next day.

What else did you ask me?

Q. This is like a dream come true, being the president of the team you grew up rooting for. It would be nerve-wracking for me going through that job interview process. Was it for you? What was the reaction when you were informed you got the job?

BRANDON SCHNEIDER: It is a dream job for me. I said this to Joe and Peter the other day. You're in the grind day-to-day. I started out selling tickets. My job evolved over the years. This is something I've aspired to for a long time.

It is, it is a dream job for me. It's well said. Especially growing up a Warriors fan.

The process with Joe and Peter, it's interesting. I would view it, you could say it's been on an 18-year, seven month, almost 19-year job interview. I would say more acutely, I think when I interviewed, I think I had the actual years, months and days that I had worked with them since November 12th of 2010. Truly speaking, I think I've been on a job interview since then. I don't want to say that's how I take every day.

You work every day to do the best you can for the organization, right, to create as much success and help lead the group to as much success as we can.

I'll answer your question more directly. As I sat down with Joe and Peter to talk about this, it's interesting. I was nervous leading up to it because, look, this is such a big deal and so important to me. But once I sat down with them, I was not nervous. Maybe they'll tell you that I seemed nervous. I wasn't.

I've gotten to know Joe and Peter so well, Joe said this earlier, so well over the last 10 years. They've both been incredible mentors to me.

Joe, I'll never forget, the first year before Rick was hired, you and I would say Marty were tag-teaming the president's job. I got to know you from the start during that period. Ever since that, the process, everything we do.

Peter, obviously lives down in L.A., but always has taken an interest in me. Brandon, come down to L.A., spend the day with me, we'll go have lunch, we'll go to the Dodgers game. I think we both pretend I'm not an Giants fan, he's the owner of the Dodgers. We sort of let that go.

I've just been really fortunate to build the relationship with both these guys.

That being said, I was very prepared hopefully going into that interview and had just an incredible conversation. I don't think anyone would not have an incredible conversation with these two. Always looking ahead.

I talked about Peter 'beginning the beginning', which is one of my favorite Peter Guber lines. My example for Joe, he's famous or notorious for this, depending who you are, if your Bob Myers, maybe the latter. The night of or the day after we win the championship, Joe is already talking about next year. I mean, I love that, that we're always looking ahead.

That's really what we spent our time together doing, is talking about how we see it, how I see the future, more importantly how they see the future, and what we have to do next.

The last part of your question, when they called me, it was last Wednesday. Actually Joe called me. I didn't answer because I was on a RingCentral, which is what I do all day every day nowadays. Of course, I called him back as soon as I could. I think it was three minutes later. He said, Hold on, I need to conference somebody in. So he did that. It was Peter Guber. They shared the news.

I don't know, you guys tell me, I think I blacked out for a minute. I think I was speechless initially, which as you can probably tell from this conversation is hard to cause me to be.

But it was just fun listening to them talk about why they were offering me - I wouldn't say it that way - why they had chosen me for the job. It wasn't really like there is an offer, I accept.

The other quick story I'll tell you about that conversation. I'm sitting here eating all this up, they're talking about what's next, all the things we are doing. I had a 10:30 meeting. We meet every Wednesday morning, all of our directors and above, we call it the leadership meeting, 75 people, I lead that. Rick asked me to lead that a couple years ago.

It's 10:31. We make a big deal that everybody is on time. I really hate to cut this short. I'm looking at my computer screen with 75 people on there. Can we continue this conversation because I got to go to this meeting?

Rick knew what was happening. He's texting me as I get on camera for this meeting. He is like, You're holding yourself together pretty well. I just get off this conversation and I'm getting into the agenda of all we have going on in the business. My heart is racing.

It was quite a morning. As you can tell, it's something I'll never forget.

Yeah, I think the implication of your question is right. It's a dream come true. I couldn't be more excited to be in this role and to work with all the great people we get to work with and for what's ahead.

BOB FITZGERALD: We will take the last question, then I'll have Joe, Peter and Brandon give a final thought about fans coming back into the building next week, where we are as a franchise, how excited we are to see where we are again.

Q. I was just wondering, you talked about the last decade and the challenges ahead. One of the biggest changes over the last decade has been from the business side, a huge growth of the Laureus brand internationally. Creative thinking outside the box that you talked about in the pandemic, what are the things that you're talking about that you might try and do to reach kind of those new audiences and continue to build that international audience, whether it's the virtual experience you're been experimenting with or new partnerships?

BRANDON SCHNEIDER: I think we're really fortunate to be a part of the NBA. The NBA, you think about the global games in soccer, or football as they call it everywhere else, and now the NBA are the two largest sports, games, globally. The NBA has done a ton of work of leading the way in creating the global brand that we're all a part of.

As a part of that, I think the success we've had on the court, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant when he was here, Draymond Green, all the star players, Andre, Shaun Livingston. I shouldn't name the names because now you have to keep going. All the great players we've had have helped build that.

A lot of people in our organization, the marketing department, our partnership group, social media, all they've done to develop our brand internationally. We've got more Facebook fans in the Philippines than we do in the United States, as an example, which is probably a surprise to a lot of people.

Someone will keep me honest, we were the first team in the NBA to create a Wavo account. We are definitely the first in the NBA to create a TikTok account. We have always wanted to be on the cutting edge. Social media platforms are one great way to reach people internationally. We'll continue on that track.

The other thing I'll say is we continue to work with the NBA during the pandemic and in general to open up other opportunities for teams. They've recently opened up opportunities for us.

Normally you can only use your marks and leverage partnerships within your marketing territory, which for us is the state of California. It gets complicated with the other California teams, but minus the 75-mile radius around Sacramento and L.A.

They've expanded. Now we can do partnerships with a limited number of companies internationally, use the NBA marks internationally. We're learning. We'll continue to grow our brand internationally, continue to think about ways through these partnerships to also continue on that track.

BOB FITZGERALD: Thank you for all the questions. They were excellent. We really appreciate it.

Joe, why don't you finish, then Peter, then Brandon, we'll go in that order.

With fans coming back, and the year and a half we've experienced, how much fun is it going to be to see fans at Chase Center? Also the fact that you've prepared for this for a year, to have people tested, to pay for the testing, to have that whole operation in place. Either testing negative or vaccinated, it will probably about the safest building in the state of California when next Friday the Warriors play against Denver.

JOE LACOB: As you know, this has been a very challenging year. We've spent a year, literally over a year working on this. Our goal is to make this the safest venue, that includes Dodger Stadium, Peter, the safest venue in the world to go to a sporting event.

Go beyond what the state and the city requires, we are I think - I could be wrong, you can comment on this - I think we're the only sports organization in the world that is doing this extent of testing. Every single person that comes in the building, even people who are vaccinated, are allowed. In many of these venues, you don't have to test. We are doing it anyway, and we're paying for it.

That is our commitment to our fans. That is our commitment to provide them with the safest, at least during this period in time, the safest environment that we can possibly provide. I want to be safe, we all want to be safe.

Peter and I look at it this way: we want to be in the safest place there is. I hope we're pretty organized. You'll see how it goes. It is not an easy thing. I can tell you, it's been one of the most difficult things we've all done. No one is prepared to run these events in this way, no one has even thought about this before. We're creating it on the fly a little bit. Our job is to make this as seamless and safe as possible. We're excited.

One more thing. When I was listening to Brandon speak earlier, one of the things that is great about this organization that I think Peter and I are so proud of, it doesn't matter if it's a sports organization or if it's any entrepreneurial organization. I've been involved in building a lot of them, so has Peter. It's all about the people. I know Brandon uses the Rick Welts line that it's all about ownership, ownership, ownership.

We set a vision, we set some high goals and standards. But at the end of the day it's who you hire and who they hire. What kind of an organization are you? What is the culture that exists in that organization? How do they work together? How do they collaborate? Who are the people that are below the people like Brandon, people that work for him? He's built a great organization underneath him.

That's what's really important, that you have this organization that is always ready to go to the next stage because we are now going to a next stage here. We built a great team. We built a culture. We built an arena. We got hit by the pandemic. Now we're entering a whole new phase, that is to expand and create what we originally set up doing with this arena, take this business in places that it hasn't gone before as a sports, entertainment, media and technology company. That is our goal.

With the people that we have, led by Brandon and those that work for him, I think we have an immense capability to do that.

BOB FITZGERALD: Very well said.

Peter, speak to the emotion of fans being back in the building because we need to be around people. That's the fun thing about sports, is experiencing that stuff collectively. Dub Nation is as great a group of fans as we see in any level of sports.

Joe mentioned it, the whole organization has been planning it for a year. Giving me some thoughts on having fans in the building and final thoughts on Brandon's selection and today.

PETER GUBER: I think Joe said it well. Thanks for letting me add a comment.

We're in the business of a modern day campfire. We're a location-based entertainment business. We're a business for people's hearts first, not their pocketbooks. We have to ignite them. That social experience of being together, cheering together, brings the community much closer today. Diverse people all cheering for the team, cheering for artists that are performing, music in the venue. We're cheering in the park, eating together in the restaurants, being together in the plaza, being together digitally in our digital social community.

Brandon and I talked about this. We have to remember that we are a state-of-the-heart business. That really is part of what we're trying to exercise.

We're trying to ignite people around the world to our brand, to our promise, and our premise that we're going to bring state-of-the-art entertainment and experiences with our basketball, through other sports ventures, through our media, to them.

That's a high level of promise today in this marketplace. But I think Brandon and his group are up for it. They have a shared vision that we can do this, and that's one of the goals that's ahead of us.

BOB FITZGERALD: Very well said.

Brandon, I'll give you the final word. Like you said, maybe a 19-year journey, the last 10 was like an audition, and you learned from the very best in Joe, Peter and Rick. You're now the president and the COO of the Golden State Warriors, your childhood team. You remember your first game when you were seven years old. Give us a final thought and kind of wrap things up.

BRANDON SCHNEIDER: Well, following those two, I think they said it all so well. Again, Joe, you made light of me mentioning Rick's line. You two just validated it, by the way.

Look, I'll speak to Joe and Peter, thanks again. To all of my colleagues with the Warriors, many of whom I've worked with for a long, long time, not too many have been here longer than me any more, Bob, you being one of them. To all of you, thank you so much for the support over the years, helping us get to that point.

I think the fact that Joe and Peter interviewed internal candidates for this role says a lot about all of you and what we've accomplished together.

Then to Dub Nation, because I'm also seeing texts pop up, trying not to look down at my cell phone. From season ticketholders, people I've known for a long time. Dub Nation, thank you for your support.

Bob, you talked about April 23rd. We are so fired up for that. As we look ahead even farther to next year we're hopefully back to full buildings at Chase Center, the modern day campfire as Peter says.

Just know that we will continue to do everything we can to creat the best possible experience inside of Chase Center and outside of Chase Center. That's really our goal, right? Win championship, championship organization on and off the court, do great things in the community. The community supports us so well. With Nicole's leadership, our community relations, everyone internally, that's all of our jobs.

Then to create that great experience for our fans, that's what we're focused on. That's what we'll continue to be focused on. Thanks for your support and 'Go Warriors.'

BOB FITZGERALD: Gentlemen, thank you. Thank the media as well as Dub Nation and the fans on the MyTeams app and all the Warrior employees that have checked in as well. Bigger and better things ahead. The story, Peter said it, the beginning of the beginning. Let another chapter in Warrior history begin. Thanks for taking the time. We appreciate it.