Cleveland Cavaliers

Rihanna roots too loudly for LeBron, Cavs for Warriors owner

Published Jun. 8, 2015 11:34 a.m. ET

foxsports

You've probably heard of Rihanna, one of the most famous pop artists of today.

You might not, however, have heard of a man who's much wealthier than her: Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob.

The two figures converged on an unlikely collision course last week, when they sat next to each other courtside to take in Game 1 of the NBA Finals in Oakland, as Lacob's Warriors took on LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Curiously, Lacob's seat next to Rihanna was filled by his wife, not him, not too far into the game. Here's the man's explanation, given at a panel the following Friday:

What say you? Would you scoot away from Rihanna if she was rooting loudly for your rival team?

(h/t Deadspin)

She bought seats, paid a lot of money for them, and she can root for whoever she wants, right? But I thought I would be a nice guy and I took my two kids, who get to go to a lot of games and booted them down to the end of the court and moved her next to me, and said, ‘hey, sit next to the owner.’

I thought I was being friendly. She was rooting for LeBron the whole game so finally I was getting irritated and I said, ‘I’m the owner of the Warriors.’ She didn’t care, she just kept going. So finally I said that’s it, and I moved a couple seats down. Everyone has it that I moved my fiancée next to her because she got upset that I was sitting next to Rihanna which is not true.