硅谷大佬最爱这支NBA球队

在NBA赛场里，有这么一群球队，乍看起来跟普通的球迷差不多。

不过在今年NBA总决赛第三场多伦多猛龙队对金州勇士队的比赛中，一个坐在场边的穿着保守的球迷推搡了猛龙队的后卫凯尔·洛瑞，事后大家才知道，这位不文明球迷竟然是硅谷的亿万富翁投资人马克·史蒂芬斯，他还是金州勇士队的一个小股东。消息一出，激起了轩然大波。史蒂芬斯被罚一年不得在现场观看NBA的比赛，并处50万美元罚金。由于此事的发酵，他在金州勇士队的那些股份现在也岌岌可危了。

这件事也揭露了金州勇士队保守得很好的一个小秘密——如果你认识所有的硅谷大佬，你就总能在勇士队的比赛中发现某位科技界亿万富翁的身影。金州勇士队的板凳区旁边的座位甚至被人戏称为“亿万富翁专区”。

这倒并不令人意外，因为勇士队的老板乔·莱科布本人就是一位资深风投人士。经常来现场看比赛的还有知名风投机构安德森霍洛维茨基金的联合创始人、合伙人本·霍洛维茨。霍洛维茨据说也是勇士队的锋卫摇摆人伊戈达拉的好朋友，他和霍洛维茨基金的另一合伙人杰夫·乔丹还为伊戈达拉提供过咨询服务。

Salesforce公司的CEO马克·贝尼奥夫也曾经在金州勇士队的主场——加州奥兰多的甲骨文体育馆现场观看过比赛。Airbnb的CEO布莱恩·切斯基也经常到现场看球。在上周五的比赛中，勇士队以92:105不敌猛龙队，很多勇士队的前排球迷不等比赛结束便提前离场了。

苹果公司的互联网和软件服务高级副总裁艾迪·库伊也是勇士队的死忠粉。在现场观战时，他经常激动得从座椅上跳起来。勇士队2015年第一次夺冠后，他甚至还在推特上发了一张自己戴着硕大的镶满黄金和钻石的总冠军戒指的照片。

在2017年总决赛的一场比赛中，库伊还对克里夫兰骑士队的球迷、POP天后蕾哈娜大喊大叫起来。据报道，库伊当时指着蕾哈娜的方向对身边的人说：“让那个贱人坐下！”号称“蕾哈娜的海军”的天后后援团的粉丝们怒了，在社交媒体上纷纷放话要灭了这货乃至苹果公司。库伊只得通过推特向蕾哈娜示好：“我对蕾哈娜（还有杜兰特）只有爱，没有别的！我当时是为我们队的领先感到兴奋，我其实是跟右边与我隔了8个位子的玛丽莎说话来着！”虽然他没说玛丽莎是谁，但很多人猜测她是雅虎的前CEO玛丽莎·梅耶尔。

实际上，金州勇士队和科技界的联系是非常紧密的，勇士队的库里、杜兰特和伊戈达拉等都投资了几家硅谷的创业公司。

库里投资的公司名叫CoachUp和SnapTravel，前者是一家将专业私教和年轻运动员进行配对的创业公司，后者则是一家多伦多的创业公司，可以通过WhatsApp和Pinterest等社交媒体平台简化酒店的预订流程。杜兰特则投资了一个名叫Postmates的食品外卖服务平台，和一个叫Acorns的微投资APP。

伊戈达拉也投资了三家公司。一家是阿里安娜·赫芬顿支持的健康与保健网站Thrive Global；一家是专门针对有色族裔的健康和美容创业公司Walker & Company；另一家是由棒球界的传奇人物德里克·吉特创办的媒体平台The Players’ Tribune，它允许运动员实名注册并发表内容。

金州勇士队的主要赞助商还包括日本电商网站乐天（他们的标识还出现在了勇士队的球衣上）。今年秋天，拥有更高科技含量的勇士队新主场场馆将在旧金山市中心落成，到时无疑将吸引更多的科技界人士到场看球。

在新球馆落成后，硅谷大佬们就不用挤严重拥堵的海湾大桥了，而是可以沿美国101号高速公路直奔旧金山市区。这样一来，我们必然会在勇士队比赛的现场看见更多硅谷大佬的身影。（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

They only look like your average fans.

It caused quite a stir when the conservatively dressed fan sitting courtside who shoved Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry during Game 3 of the NBA Finals turned out to be Silicon Valley billionaire venture capitalist and Warriors minority owner Mark Stevens. He was consequently banned from attending games for one year, fined $500,000 and his stake in the team likely in jeopardy.

The incident cast a spotlight on a well-kept Warriors secret, which is that if you know who to look for, you can almost always spot a tech billionaire at a Warriors game. So much so that the courtside seats near the Warriors’ bench are often referred to as “Billionaire’s Row.”

It makes sense, given that Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob is also a longtime VC. Other regulars include Ben Horowitz, a co-founder and general partner at the VC firm, Andreessen Horowitz. Horowitz is considered good friends with Andre Iguodala, the Warriors’ swingman, and known for advising the basketball star along with Jeff Jordan, an Andreessen Horowitz partner.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has been known to sit up close to watch the action at Oracle Arena, the Warriors current home in Oakland, California. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has also been spotted taking in games. Many front row fans likely left early Friday after the Warriors lost Game 4 to the Raptors 105-92.

One of the most boisterous Warriors fans is Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet and software services. He’s often seen jumping out of his seat during Warriors’ games. Cue is such a fan that he even tweeted a photo of himself wearing a huge gold and diamond-encrusted Warriors championship ring when the team won its first title in 2015.

At one game, Cue was seen apparently yelling at pop princess Rihanna, a Cleveland Cavaliers fan at the time, during the 2017 NBA Finals. Cue reportedly told others nearby to “tell that b- to sit down,” at the Grammy-winning singer’s direction. RiRi’s fierce legion of fans, dubbed “Rihanna’s Navy,” trolled Cue and Apple mercilessly on social media. This prompted Cue to respond via Twitter. “Nothing but love for Rihanna (and KD, too!) As usual, I was excited about our lead and actually talking to Marissa, 8 seats to my right,” Cue tweeted. While Cue didn’t mention who Marissa was, many assumed it was former Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer.

Indeed, the links between tech and the Warriors are so strong that star players Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Iguodala have invested in several startups.

Curry has invested in CoachUp, a startup that pairs private coaches with young athletes, SnapTravel, a Toronto-based startup that promotes simplifying the hotel booking process by making reservations on message platforms like WhatsApp, and Pinterest. Durant has invested in online food delivery service Postmates and Acorns, a micro-investing app.

Iguodala has invested in the Arianna Huffington-backed Thrive Global, a health and wellness site; Walker & Company, a health and beauty startup targeted to people of color, and The Players’ Tribune, the media platform allowing athletes to write first-person accounts founded by baseball legend Derek Jeter.

One of the team’s main sponsors includes e-commerce site Rakuten (their logo is on the team’s jerseys), and its new tech-enhanced arena in downtown San Francisco opening this fall will undoubtedly mean more techies will attend.

Expect to see even more billionaires in attendance once they don’t have to cross congested traffic on the Bay Bridge and instead take a long, but occasionally brutal trek up to the city from the Valley on U.S. Highway 101.