Sleeper, which has developed a social and gaming platform for sports, has raised a $20 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). A slew of other (high-profile) investors participated in the investment, which brings the San Mateo, California, company’s total venture raised to $27.3 million since its 2015 inception, according to Crunchbase data. Also putting money into the Series B were NBA Star Baron Davis, NFL Pro Bowler JuJu Smith-Schuster, ESPN analyst Ros Gold Onwude, Twitch COO Kevin Lin, and the a16z Cultural Leadership Fund. Existing backers General Catalyst, Birchmere Ventures and Rainfall were involved as well. NBA Star Kevin Durant and Thirty Five Ventures co-founder Rich Kleiman participated in the Sleeper’s Series A.
Tag: Rich Kleiman
But the way Durant’s final season with …
But the way Durant’s final season with the Warriors played out, how he left and all the words that have been said since make it seem like his time here wasn’t good or pleasurable. That’s an incorrect assessment according to Durant’s manager, Rich Kleiman. “He has never regretted decisions,” Kleiman said on The Athletic’s “Tampering” podcast this week. “He feels like his experience in the Bay was incredible. He went to three Finals, won two Finals MVPs, formed an incredible set of relationships for life there. Has incredible friends there. So that situation was awesome. “And he got to go to New York, where he wanted to play and play for an organization that he was interested in being a part of and he’s playing with a player he wanted to play with, and he did it his way. He chose where he wanted to be.”
Green thought it would have made things …
Green thought it would have made things easier on everyone, removed many of the constant questions the team faced as Durant’s future hung in the balance. Durant’s agent, Rich Kleiman, doesn’t agree with that line of thought, because, first and foremost, Durant really didn’t know what he was going to do. You can’t say what you don’t know or else you risk becoming Kyrie Irving, who pledged to stay with the Boston Celtics only to do an about-face and join Durant with the Brooklyn Nets.
“Kevin and I haven’t spoken about …
“Kevin and I haven’t spoken about [Draymond’s comments] since that day,” Kleiman told The Athletic’s “Tampering” podcast. “I don’t necessarily agree with the [notion that] ‘He should have let us know’ because nothing is as black and white as that. It’s like you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. He didn’t know at certain times. You go back and forth on how you feel. Everybody does, like, throughout the course of a season. You gonna make a declaration on something when you really don’t know how you’re going to feel, you don’t know anything. Look what happened to him in the Finals. No one knows any of it. “So just think about how that would have played into effect. Imagine if people said ‘Earlier in the year, Kevin said he’s not coming back’ and the way they would have been talking about it. All of that, when you really break it down, made no sense. And he really didn’t know.”
Nets general manager Sean Marks fed …
Nets general manager Sean Marks fed that fire earlier this month when he seemed to indicate it was possible during an interview with the New Zealand media outlet, Newshub. “That’s a $110 million question,” Marks, whose team is currently in seventh place in the East, said in the interview. “When you’ve got enough invested in a player like Kevin, we’re never going to push him to come back. When the timing is right, he’ll be 100 percent when he gets on the court. … I can tell you this though: Before the pandemic, he looked like Kevin Durant and that’s a good thing.”
But Kleiman made it clear that he …
But Kleiman made it clear that he doesn’t see Durant returning until next season — whenever that might be. “I don’t want to speak for him, but no,” Kleiman said. “It’s unrealistic. I think anyone should realize that, when you’re looking at just the circumstances and just what he’s coming back from.”
On Draymond Green’s recent media tour …
On Draymond Green’s recent media tour (during a visit with Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes on the “All the Smoke” podcast, the Warriors forward talked at length about his view of what led to Durant’s departure; he also had a candid interview on the Uninterrupted platform)… “Well look, I think Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson — and you guys can attest to this as interviewers — they did a great job because they got him to talk about the experience in great detail for a long period of time. I don’t think Draymond got on that show with the intention of being like, ‘Let me dive deep into the final year of Kevin’s tenure with the Warriors.’ I think that they got into a conversation.
“Draymond was getting things off his …
“Draymond was getting things off his chest that he felt he needed to do, and from a point of view that he feels like is — I don’t want to say accurate — but is how he sees it, right? This is how he sees everything. My feeling is that that’s over with now, what Draymond said. It really, definitely, doesn’t matter what I think, you know what I mean? And I don’t think Kevin has thought about it since that day. When you put it up against everything going on in this world, and the timing of it, it was kind of like, ‘All right, you know, I see how he feels.’ But I also know that emotions make certain things come out certain ways. It’s not always representative of exactly how you feel or what you want to say…”
On Friday at 9 p.m., SHOWTIME will …
On Friday at 9 p.m., SHOWTIME will begin airing the new documentary BASKETBALL COUNTY: In The Water, a collaboration with Durant and his agent Rich Kleiman’s Thirty Five Ventures. The film explores how one county in Maryland, Durant’s hometown, has recently produced more elite basketball players than anywhere else in the world. In The Water tells the story of Prince George’s County, Md., and its social, economic and cultural evolution through the lens of some of the game’s biggest stars—Durant, Victor Oladipo, Michael Beasley, Quinn Cook, Rebekkah Brunson, Marissa Coleman and many more. Since 2000, the county just outside the nation’s capital has spawned some 25 NBA players, more than a dozen WNBA players, and countless more who have competed at elite universities, highlighting the decades-long prevalence of basketball within a region of roughly 800,000 residents.
Kleiman recently said it was …
Kleiman recently said it was “unrealistic” to expect that Durant would play this season for the Brooklyn Nets if the NBA resumes. But this project will give fans a glimpse into Durant’s background and influences even if he’s not currently playing in NBA games. “Kevin and I are looking to tell compelling stories with sports at the forefront of every Thirty Five Ventures media project, and BASKETBALL COUNTY exemplifies that,” Kleinman said. “Through the voices of nearly a dozen former and current professional basketball players from Prince George’s County, fans will learn how important basketball is to the area and how it’s impacted the game itself.”