Jennifer Hudson very nearly got a basketball to the face — and did get a basketball player to the face — sitting courtside with Common at the Knicks-Warriors game Tuesday.
And somewhere in the middle of it all, her boyfriend pretty much hit her in the face, but only because he was trying to protect her.
(These are things that do not happen to people who sit in the cheap seats, which for this famous couple might be, like, Row 3.)
Miles McBride of the New York Knicks was going for a steal against the visiting Golden State Warriors at Madison Square Garden when things went all sorts of wrong in the game’s second period.
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The action unfolded in an instant: McBride jumped into the path of a Warrior-to-Warrior pass. He tipped the ball. He did not take control of the ball. And he did not stop. At the receiving end of that 6-foot-1 momentum? It was JHud.
Fortunately it wasn’t, say, 7-foot Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns who went for the ball, or the world might have found itself missing one name on the EGOT list. Towns skipped the game for personal reasons, according to the New York Post.
Common tried to protect his lady, but in executing a volleyball-style move to knock the basketball away from her face, he appeared to whack her right in what NBA on TNT announcer Greg Anthony guessed were her “real expensive” eyeglasses. Hudson, who said a distinct “wow” in the immediate aftermath, did not look even one bit happy.
McBride politely checked in with both of them before he turned back to the game. In a flash, the collision was over.
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“Protect Jennifer Hudson. Protect Jennifer Hudson,” announcer Ian Eagle intoned afterward. Then came the instant replay, during which they assessed whether Common had indeed protected the talk-show host.
“Common is making sure everybody’s OK,” Eagle said.
“Let me see what Common did — did he, did he protect her?” Anthony wondered.
“He tried. He actually banged the glasses,” Eagle said.
“No. No he didn’t [protect her],” Anthony said. “He doesn’t get points for that.”
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In other celebrity courtside news, later in the game die-hard fan Spike Lee had a few things to tell Golden State’s Steph Curry right to his face after Curry got around McBride’s defense to sink a three-pointer for the lead.
Golden State beat New York, 114-102.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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