Warriors reportedly receiving No. 11 pick trade offer led to draft room scene originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Warriors owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy raised eyebrows with their viral draft room interaction Tuesday night.
After joking that the two were arguing about the best golf course in San Francisco, Dunleavy downplayed the moment as a whole while speaking to reporters after the 2026 NBA Draft, adding that there were “probably some talks about trades” before the team selected Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg with the No. 11 pick.
More details about that conversation were shared by The SF Standard’s Tim Kawakami on Wednesday morning, who reported, citing multiple sources, that Dunleavy and Lacob were “brushing off a moderate offer” for the No. 11 pick.
“From our standpoint, we knew we were going to pick Yaxel at 11, he was the guy,” Dunleavy told reporters. “But you just want to flush him out, make sure you’re not missing anything that falls in your lap or makes a ton of sense. So that’s what we were doing. And I think Joe was like, ‘Come on, just let’s go ahead and pick the guy.’ I said, ‘Joe, we have time. They give you five minutes.’ He was just getting a little anxious about us taking Yaxel.
“The good thing was, because we were on the clock, nobody could swoop in and take him ahead of us. So I was willing to be patient with it.”
Now that that’s cleared up, hopefully everyone can move on from the viral moment.
