BRAVE
NEW WORLD
Proud of his achievements but
restless for more, Soon-Shiong
has decided that visibility means
business and more attention for
his holistic approach to medical care. A dedicated sports fan,
he bid on, but failed to win, the
Dodgers. He bid on, but failed
to win, rights to a new National
Football League team in LA. But
he did manage to buy Magic Johnson’s interest in the NBA’s Lakers.
When the Lakers are at home,
you often can see Soon-Shiong
(usually with his wife) in his courtside seat in the Staples Center.
He watches with a player’s appreciation of the game, having
started shooting on netless hoops
back in South Africa when he was
10. When he arrived in LA in 1980,
he was able to play pickup games at
UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, and became
a rabid Lakers’ fan. The Lakers were
then reemerging with a fast-paced,
flowing but disciplined style of play
they called “Showtime.”
Soon-Shiong fell in love with
“Showtime.” Lakers games, he
says, are “a sacred space” for him
— the only time he isn’t thinking
of his work.
But of course there is a science
and a pattern involved even in being a fan. It has to do with where
HUFFINGTON
12.22.13
he sits.
Given his net worth, many
years as a fan and close ties to
the team, he could have any seat,
with the possible exception of
Jack Nicholson’s.
Soon-Shiong chose seats at the
end of the court, halfway between
the basket and the corner. It’s the
end of the court on which, as the
home team, the Lakers play the
last quarter. So Soon-Shiong can
“In the past, the scientific,
technological and digital pieces
did not in exist to assemble the
whole. Now they do.”
watch the action under the basket and study fast breaks as they
come toward him.
There are other angles. The
seats are close to the Lakers
bench, which he can observe
and eavesdrop — or visit during
breaks. He is visible in the arena
— political and business leaders
know where to find him — but
isn’t center court, with the Hollywood crowd. He is near the tunnel
through which the Lakers enter
and leave.
“This is the perfect place to sit,”
he explains at a recent
game. “I see everything.”
Howard Fineman is the editorial
director of The Huffington Post.