Last night was game one of the NBA finals, and anticlimactic as the game itself was there was no shortage of action off-court.
As our colleagues at Deadspin wrote this morning, Rihanna was the highlight of Game 1, allegedly getting into a staredown with the Warriors’ Kevin Durant and, in general, kicking up a fuss and being the most compelling factor of a 113-91 washout. As our sports sister site put it:
Rihanna is a LeBron James superfan, and woe be unto any Warriors fan sitting behind her who wants to stop her from paying tribute.
As it turns out, one such Warriors fan was Apple’s Eddy Cue, as a video circulating around Twitter shows.
Judging from the video, it appears that Cue was yelling at Rihanna and gesturing for her return to her seat (though Cue himself is standing.) Taking to Twitter this morning, Cue has denied that the interaction took place, stating that he was in fact yelling past Rihanna at someone named “Marissa.”
Cue—senior vice president of internet software and services and more or less the right hand of Tim Cook—was very much in attendance last night, and is known for being an absolutely massive Warriors fan. Apple partnered with Steph Curry for an ad. Kevin Durant hung out at Cue’s place to watch the election results in November. A red-faced Cue made front page of the San Fransisco Chronicle last year during the finals, screaming at Curry (out of encouragement, one assumes).
But no matter how deep your abiding love for a sports team, no one tells Rihanna to sit down. Accusations flung from within the Rihannasphere also suggest Cue may have called the pop star a “bitch,” but Gizmodo has been unable to verify their veracity. We’ve reached out to Apple and Rihanna’s management for comment and will update if we hear back.
God help you, Mr. Cue.