Sports Illustrated, ESPN, the NBA Network and other major networks are nearly a daily presence around the Golden State Warriors these days. They are trying to accommodate the voracious curiosity about how this team has become so fan-pleasingly successful.

Many of these outlets have floated theories and mined interesting informational tidbits.

The Times for example, made the Warriors the cover story of their Sunday magazine.

The Times' feature focused on Warriors owner Joe Lacob and his ability to structure the team like a successful venture capitalist enterprise.

The article highlights Lacob's innovations such as knocking down walls in the Warriors offices and eliciting opinions from a wide range of sources. Author Bruce Schoenfeld also concedes that the Silicon Valley structure might not have much to do with the Warriors success when compared to the drafting and developing of transcendental talent Stephen Curry.

Yet, there are some revelations in the story. Lacob admitted to Schoenfeld that he has won over $1 million bucks on nine different occasions playing blackjack. Lacob also said that he is probably among the top-10 best blackjack players in the world. He learned the technique of counting cards from a calculus class taught by Edward Thorp while Lacob was an undergraduate at UC Irvine.

Thorp's 1962 text "Beat the Dealer" is the seminal work on winning at blackjack. He was banned from casinos, but he would fund Vegas trips for his students and then partake in some of their winnings. Needless to say, Lacob was a star pupil.

Schoenfeld makes the point that preparation and forethought can be a winning strategy in games of luck. Lacob and the Warriors might have lucked into Curry overcoming persistent ankle injuries to become the best ace in the hole imaginable. However, Lacob might have created the perfect atmosphere and surrounded Curry with the perfect cast to launch his unprecedented success.

And that is likely to go down as Lacob's biggest win of all.