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Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar and CEO of McLaren Racing Zac Brown have been good friends for quite some time. As McLaren Racing won their first F1 Constructors’ Championship in 26 years, Kopitar’s wife Ines was among the first to congratulate Brown and McLauren Racing.
Ines Kopitar took to Instagram on Sunday to share F1’s Instagram post featuring a special poster for McLaren which announced them as Constructors’ Champions of the season. In the caption, she added a congratulatory message:
“So well deserved!! Congratulations guys!!!”
Zac Brown and Anze Kopitar became friends in an unexpected way. While watching an episode from the fourth season of Netflix’s “Drive to Survive”, a show about Formula 1 racing, Kopitar noticed a clip of Brown playing hockey. Intrigued, he sent Brown a direct message inviting him to a Kings game if he was ever in Los Angeles.
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To Kopitar’s surprise, Zac Brown replied quickly, sharing that he had been a lifelong Kings fan. Growing up in Southern California, Brown followed the team during its early years and idolized players from the Triple Crown Line era, so the two were able to bond easily.
Anze Kopitar and Zac Brown’s families took skiing holiday together
Their initial online conversation soon turned into a real-life meeting. During the LA Kings’ 10-day break last season, Kopitar and his family joined Brown for a weekend in Mammoth.
“We stayed in touch and then he had an extra few days, so he came to visit us and go skiing [in Mammoth],” Kopitar said in an interview with Mayors Manor.
They went skiing, shared laughs, and bonded over their love for sports. Zac Brown also shared how amazing the experience of getting to know Kopitar’s family was.
“For me, it’s a lot of fun to get to know them because I’m a massive fan of their sport,” he said. “If you grow up around the sport watching these guys — obviously, I don’t mean Anze; age-wise, I’m older than him — but having a Kings player reach out is pretty cool and we hit it off.”
“He and his wife Ines, what a great family they have. They came to Vegas and then we spent a wonderful weekend in the mountains, hanging out with the kids and had some friends over. We had tons and tons of laughs.”
Kopitar shared that he plans to attend a Formula 1 race, and Brown by that time had already secured glass seats for the Kings’ last game of the season. He mentioned that he and his wife were looking forward to cheering Anze and his team from the stands.
