Kings owner Vivek Ranadive shows up courtside to Warriors-Grizzlies, spurs rumors about team’s coaching search

Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive is no stranger to big-time playoff games.

Well, Golden State Warriors playoff games, anyway. Ranadive was in attendance for Warriors-Rockets in the 2016 postseason, and made another appearance in the Bay Area — this time courtside at the Chase Center — for Game 3 of Dubs-Grizzlies on Saturday night in San Francisco.

It’s a little strange for the owner of a pro sports team to repeatedly show up courtside to playoff games that don’t involve his own team, but not that crazy — especially when the team in question (Sacramento) hasn’t made the postseason since 2006. What’s more interesting about Ranadive’s latest Dubs appearance is that the Kings currently don’t have a head coach, and as it happens, two reported candidates for the job (Mark Jackson and Mike Brown) were in the building on Saturday night.

Jackson, of course, is a broadcaster at ESPN. Ranadive wasn’t in San Francisco to scout his color commentating chops,  but he could have been in the building to grab a few minutes with Jackson afterwards. And it’s also entirely possible Ranadive wanted to check out how Brown, a Warriors assistant coach, operates in-person. It’s unclear if Brown would even take the Kings job, given how many coaches they’ve cycled through in recent years. 

Alternatively, Ranadive might’ve just wanted to catch a good basketball game. But if that’s the case, he picked an awfully coincidental matchup to take in while courtside.