Fan Hall of Fame

James Goldstein

L.A. Basketball

With a business card reading Fashion Architecture Basketball, James Goldstein is a vibrantly-dressed fixture at virtually all L.A. Lakers (since 1962) and Clippers (since 1984) home games. Indeed, seated court-side with an exotic chapeau and extravagant clothes, he’s hard to miss. Never one to claim a single team, he is a global fan of all professional basketball and has been recognized by former commissioner David Stern as the “... largest investor in NBA tickets in the world.

While the game has certainly influenced him, he, in turn, has influenced the “world’s greatest athletes” (as he calls them) to ramp up their fashion games. Goldstein arrives early to most matchups, giving him a chance to kibitz with visiting teams’ players about Yves St. Laurent’s latest, and to show off his dazzling array of outfits from his rotating closet collection. But his clothes are not all that glitters - in his ninth decade, this bon vivant still hosts A-list parties from his California home, replete with its own nightclub, where you might catch Leo DiCaprio debating zone defenses with Jack Nicholson.