Marquee NBA games have increasingly become a place for the nationally known to see and be seen in recent years. Beyoncé and Jay-Z are fixtures at nationally televised contests in Los Angeles and New York City; Drake is basically the Toronto Raptors’ unofficial mascot; and even President Barack Obama sometimes makes his way to Verizon Center to watch the Washington Wizards take on his hometown Chicago Bulls and other star-laden squads.
On Thursday night in Oakland, though, President Obama and all other celebrity attendees of this season’s biggest contests were upstaged by the presence of one of the world’s most singular entertainers. After his Golden State Warriors beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 121-106, Steph Curry tweeted the following photo of an Oracle Arena hallway conspicuously cloaked in a shade of universal royalty.
Think they were expecting someone special tonight at @OracleArena????? #PurpleRain pic.twitter.com/AvjZ36wHii
— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) March 4, 2016
That’s right, folks. Even the world’s best basketball player, a man who’s made a habit of golfing with Obama and getting post-game burgers with Drake, was enamored with the aura provided by Prince.
The “Purple Rain” legend was in Oakland to play a show at Oracle on Friday night and decided to watch two of the league’s best teams go toe-to-toe. Not that it should have been very surprising, by the way. Prince has been a fan of the game for awhile, and obviously relished the chance to watch Curry dance around the Thunder the way he has on stage for several decades ongoing.
