(The spectacular Oracle Arena.)
It was a dark and stormy evening but it was also Bollywood Night at the Oracle Arena in Oakland and I had two tickets to see the Golden State Warriors play the Dallas Mavericks — thanks to Tibco Software.
[Vivek Ranadivé, CEO of Tibco, is one of the owners of the Warriors, and the first Indian-American NBA team owner. The scrappy kid from Mumbai has done very well, arriving as a teenager in Silicon Valley many years before the recent waves of Indian engineers.
Vivek Ranadivé is also one of the most interesting personalities in Silicon Valley. I knew him when I worked at the Financial Times and he became one of my most important contacts because of his long history and extensive contacts within the valley. When I left the Financial Times he took a keen interest in my publishing venture. Tibco became a founding sponsor of Silicon Valley Watcher in 2005, and has remained our most loyal supporter. I hope my readers appreciate Tibco’s important contribution to SVW.]
I’d never been to an NBA game and was looking forward to it immensely. I set off with my son Matt, and we braved the nasty cats and dogs weather, driving across the bridge to Oakland. And I’m glad we did because we had a brilliant time. Here’s a taste of the event:
The Warrior Girls, the Golden State Warriors’ cheerleaders got into the Bollywood spirit with colorful costumes.
Sport is theater…
The first person we ran into was Cory (Scoop) Johnson (above with Tim Draper) CNBC’s original Silicon Valley reporter. He now works for Bloomberg TV.
Tim Draper, founder of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, is as well known for his eccentric personality as he is for his VC prowess.
Al Seracevic, sports editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, quickly took Matt and I under his wing and gave us for a whirlwind tour of the benches and the media balcony. It great catching up with Al, I hadn’t seen him since a very late and very liquid North Beach adventure about a year ago.
Zach Nelson, CEO of Netsuite, who had a great seat down on the court.
Vivek Ranadivé’s daughter Anjali (on screen above) sang the national anthem.
The Dallas bench…
Here’s where the sports hacks perch.
Elevator to the Grandview Suites.
A very spirited crowd.
The always hardworking Tibco Comms team.
A rainy treck home.
Tom Foremski is the Editor and Founder of the popular and top-ranked news site Silicon Valley Watcher, reporting on business and culture of innovation. He is a former journalist at the Financial Times and in 2004, became the first journalist from a leading newspaper to resign and become a full-time journalist blogger.
Tom has been reporting on Silicon Valley and the US tech industry since 1984 and has been named as one of the top 50 (#28) most influential bloggers in Silicon Valley. His current focus is on the convergence of media and technology — the making of a new era for Silicon Valley. He also writes a column at ZDNET.
