Celebrity list for Kings Game 2: One-time enemies and friends again Floyd Mayweather and 50 Cent

A retired boxer and a very much active rapper highlighted Monday’s celebrity list for Game 2 of the Kings-Warriors tussle for Northern California.

The famous faces inside Golden 1 Center also included the usual ex-Kings, forever beloved by fans, including Vlade Divac and Peja Stojakovic. Also on hand: members of the Sacramento River Cats’ Triple-A baseball team.

But the intrigue was with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and 50 Cent. Mayweather retired from a career in the ring where the aim was to knock the other guy’s block off. He went 50-0 and won 15 major world championships. 50 Cent is a Kings fan regular. The men went from close friends to not talking in person, though they lit up social media a few years back by tying into each other with verbal jabs and taunts.

Guests of Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, Mayweather and 50 Cent sat courtside, and they huddled during a stoppage of play in the first half for a photo on the phone of the Kings owner. Kings mascot Slamson, armed with massive red boxing gloves, hustled over in the first half and pretended to take a knockout punch from the former champ. The Kings won 114-106 for a 2-0 series lead.

Slamson collapses after a fake knock-out punch by Floyd Mayweather Jr. during Game 2 of the first-round NBA playoff series at Golden 1 Center on Monday, April 17, 2023.

The past bickering between the celebs included 50 Cent using the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014 to rib Mayweather. He challenged Mayweather on Instagram to read an entire page from a Harry Potter book out loud, and if he could do it without making any mistakes, the rapper said he would donate $750,000 to a charity.

Mayweather replied on social media by letting dollar signs do the talking, displaying two checks from Golden Boy Promotions worth more than $72 million. The rapper and the boxer did not sit next to each other. Rather, each sat on one side of the TNT broadcast crew. Ranadive sat next to the boxer, who was decked out with a bright red hat and colorful cardigan.

50 Cent was back but rapper E-40 was not. A Warriors superfan, E-40 has been a regular for Golden State home games for years. He was a Kings fan when the Kings were a thing in the late 1990s and into the 2000s, often appearing at Arco Arena decked in Kings garb.

E-40 was told by Kings security to leave his baseline seat inside Golden 1 during the fourth quarter of Game 1 after an issue with Kings fans, including verbal sparring. He was escorted out through the tunnel with Warriors forward Andre Iguodala walking behind. Apparently, the hip-hop artist irked Kings fans by standing too much, according to Kings fans, and he casts quite a regal figure to peer around.