It's amazing what winning will do.
While the Golden State Warriors lack the celebrity star power that bigger markets like New York and Los Angeles have, the reigning NBA championship team does have Silicon Valley's elite and the presence of startup-capital powerhouses attending their games at Oracle Arena. A For the Win report Monday (August 31) shows how certain Warriors players are even partnering with some giants in the space.
Warriors small forward Harrison Barnes works as a consultant for Facebook, while NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala worked for Twice, which was recently acquired by eBay. The NBA's 2014-15 MVP Stephen Curry is partners with CoachUp, a private coaching website and sports matching service, and is also involved in a social media site for further engagement between fans and athletes.
For the Warriors, it's all about taking advantage of the location and learning from some of the elite in the process.
"You'll see Larry Ellison, you'll see Jack Dorsey, you'll see Adam Bain," Barnes told For The Win, referring to the co-founder of Oracle and Twitter executives. "You'll see all these guys courtside that they're walking down the street people might not say 'oh my god that's so-and-so' but if you know who they are and you know what they do, [they're] obviously well-respected in their fields."
Added Iguodala: "Being [at Silicon Valley] helps, but more than anything you have to do your due diligence and get out there and do some research on what exactly you want to get into and then meet the right people. So I've been able to do that, it's helped me so far in just getting my foot in the door. New York's always going to be special and LA you have the whole Hollywood thing. You kind of start to take advantage of the city you're in or the environment you're in, definitely the environment the Bay Area's in, it's at your disposal."
The Warriors seem to definitely be making the most of their opportunity.
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