This project has already been 4+ years in the making.

”Honestly, a relief to some extent,” owner and CEO Joe Lacob said.

Kerr is campaigning for the Golden State name to stay put along with his superstar players.

”We are the Golden State Warriors and it’s not up to me, but I don’t want it to change,” Kerr said. ”It’s a unique name. It’s the only one like it in the league. I would like to see that remain. I fully believe we are still the Bay Area’s team, no matter whether we’re playing in Oakland or San Jose or San Francisco. The name Golden State Warriors, there’s too much history, there’s too much tradition to change.”

Even if in a success-oriented business like the NBA, nobody knows who will still be around when 18,000-seat Chase Center is complete. Kerr has no idea if he will even still be on the sidelines then.

”If you’re lucky enough in life, like I’ve been, you reach a point where you get to choose who you work with, you get to choose where you live and you get to choose where you work,” Kerr said. ”By those metrics, I want to stay here forever. I’m also an NBA coach and I’m well aware that this building is going to take about three years to build, so the chances of me standing on the sidelines for the Warriors are slim to hopeful. Maybe as, like, the coach of another team.

”So far, so good, so hopefully I’ll still be here.”

Next, Golden State will likely work to keep both two-time reigning MVP Stephen Curry and Durant for the long haul by negotiating new deals this year. Kerr speaks to Durant daily and knows he is happy with his new Bay Area surroundings.

”We’re going to win for a long time. … We’ll do whatever it takes to be champions again,” Lacob said of spending on players.

He even publicly put KD on the spot: ”Kevin Durant came here without a new arena. Thank you, Kevin … and also for agreeing to re-sign this summer. I have no idea how he’s going to respond to that.”

The Warriors did a little bit of everything to showcase how this will be far more than just a sports venue: The over-the-top groundbreaking featured a trio of songs by a gospel choir to kick off festivities, included a performance by the San Francisco Symphony and even acrobatic dancers dressed as construction workers for a grand finale of sorts that included beach balls dropping from an excavator before the equipment rigs moved in synchronization to the music in an extravagant routine featuring trampolines.

Only boosting the mood was the California Supreme Court’s decision earlier in the day to deny a petition by arena opponents seeking to overturn the Warriors’ entitlements, further clearing the way for the project to move ahead – ”so we’re totally good to go here,” Lacob noted.

”Wow, what a day!” said Warriors COO Rick Welts, noting the team will boast one of the world’s premier ”gathering places” – for concerts and conventions, political events and more.

”Every city needs it. We need it. It will be great for San Francisco,” co-owner Peter Guber said. ”We now have proof, not just promises.”

Curry got a break from public duties this time, a day after the Warriors pulled off a stunning 126-91 rout of LeBron James and the defending champion Cavaliers. Golden State hosts Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee – among dozens of dignitaries in attendance – hollered, ”finally welcoming the Golden State Warriors home to San Francisco!”

He rattled off the Warriors’ star-studded roster and the energy around the franchise and its long-term mission.

”What’s not to love?” he said.

Lacob can’t wait – and realizes how many people will miss the great vibe at the team’s current home of Oracle Arena, an atmosphere the Warriors hope to replicate in many ways. Not only will the 11 acres include restaurants, cafes, businesses and other new additions to add vitality to the neighborhood, there will be a 51/2-acre bay-front park across from the arena.

”It is going to sing,” he said. ”It takes my breath away when we look at the renderings.”

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”I don’t even like saying all that,” he said.

So, yes, West knows real pain. Draymond Green has never needed an operation – he knocks on a table not once but twice as to not jinx himself – yet he considers that the option of using medicinal marijuana ”makes a lot of sense.”

Steve Kerr’s players believe his voice can go far in starting a serious, thoughtful dialogue in professional sports regarding pot use for pain relief.

”You look at something that comes from the Earth. Any vegetable that comes from the Earth, they encourage you to eat it,” Green said at shootaround Saturday. ”It does make a little sense as opposed to giving someone a manufactured pill. If something takes your pain away like some of these pills do, it can’t be all good for you. … He talked about Vicodin. Toradal, you can be completely hurting and then take a Toradal shot and go through a game and feel nothing. Is that really good for you over the course of time? I doubt it.”

The reigning NBA Coach of the Year acknowledged he tried marijuana twice in the past 18 months while dealing with debilitating back pain that still affects him this season. Sure, it caught the team by surprise, West said, because ”it came out of nowhere.”

Kerr told Comcast SportsNet Bay Area’s Warriors Insider Podcast with Monte Poole on Friday that he used medicinal marijuana but it didn’t help – and painkillers have often been worse.

”I have no idea if I would, maybe I would have failed a drug test, I don’t even know if I’m subject to a drug test or any laws from the NBA,” Kerr said. ”I tried it and it didn’t help at all.”

He was expected to further address the marijuana use before Saturday night’s game against Phoenix at Oracle Arena.

Green said he hasn’t needed painkillers nor has he tried marijuana, never having a serious injury or requiring surgery. Guard Klay Thompson would support drugs for medicinal use only.

”Steve’s open-minded, and obviously with the way the world’s going, if there’s anything you can do that’s medicinal, people are all for it, especially when there’s stuff like Crohn’s disease out there, glaucoma, a bunch of stuff, cancer. But not recreationally, that should not be of its use ever. There’s a medicinal side to it that people are finding out have benefits, especially people with really high pain.”

California was the first state to embrace legal, medicinal marijuana two decades ago. Twenty-eight states and Washington, D.C., now allow marijuana for medical or recreational purposes.

The 51-year-old Kerr missed the first 43 games last season and the team’s record 24-0 start while on a leave of absence following complications from two back surgeries. A spinal fluid leak led to terrible headaches, nausea and neck pain among other symptoms that left him feeling frustrated and down.

Kerr noted, ”athletes everywhere are prescribed Vicodin like it’s vitamin C, like it’s no big deal.” He said he hopes sports leagues ”are able to look past the perception” and that it’s only a matter of time to change rules and thinking.

Green and West believe that can happen, that over time people might become more open-minded when the person speaking up is someone like Kerr, who was selected the Western Conference Coach of the Month for November.

”He’s a public figure with some notoriety making a statement,” West said. ”It brings more attention to a cause for something that people feel like there needs to be a shift in the way we monitor it and change things. Obviously somebody of his stature can give a little weight to the argument.”

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The Warriors announced Wednesday that Luke Walton would fill Gentry’s spot on the bench as he begins his second season as a Warriors assistant.

Walton, a former 10-year NBA player, worked as a player development coach for the D-League Los Angeles D-Fenders in 2013-14 and as an assistant coach at the University of Memphis during the 2011 NBA lockout.

Jarron Collins was promoted to assistant coach and will be on the bench after working as a player development coach last season, when the Warriors won their first title in 40 years and a franchise-record 67 games.

Former Cal star Theo Robertson moved up to the role of video coordinator/player development.

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