Kevin Hart Explained He’s Secretly Rooting For LeBron To ‘Make History’ And Beat The Warriors

For NBA fans that also happen to enjoy comedy movies, Kevin Hart is a ubiquitous presence in their lives. The diminutive comedian has become the biggest comedy movie star in the world, popping up in everything from R-rated adult comedies to animated children’s comedies and everything in between. He also happens to be a huge basketball fan, who seemingly shows up at every major NBA event.

Kevin Hart fatigue was very real for NBA fans for a few years, as he continuously won the MVP of the Celebrity Game at All-Star Weekend, but since retiring from that, while still around, his presence isn’t quite as in your face. That said, he’s still very much around, hanging out courtside at games to watch his friends play basketball.

Hart was courtside for Game 1 of the Finals in Oakland this year, and as he explained to Stephen Colbert on Monday night, he has to walk a fine line when cheering during games because he’s friends with players on both teams.

For those that wonder why celebrities often get caught wearing jerseys from multiple teams, this is among the explanations. Celebrities might have a favorite team, but they also probably have friends around the league, so they’re going to root for their friends. Famous people live in a very different realm from the rest of us. We root for a team because of the city they play in or, maybe, because of a player on the team and stick to that team, but we don’t have any personal relationship with any of the players.

Kevin Hart wants to still be able hang out with Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson when he’s in Oakland, but also remain friends with LeBron James — as he joked, in order to bum money off of them eventually — so he just roots for them all and hopes the other side doesn’t catch him. This is a reasonable stance to take and also it’s a pretty sweet way to watch a major sporting event. Hart said he wants to see history, so he’s rooting quietly for James, but, because he’s friends with many on Golden State, he’ll still be perfectly happy if the Warriors dominate.

Hart, in his comedic way, was essentially saying what Justin Bieber explained via a mini-Twitter rant on Monday night.

Famous people live by different rules — both literally and figuratively — so just accept that they might wear your favorite team’s jersey and not be a die hard fan. It will be OK. They can’t all be Rihanna.