The Toronto Raptors won Game 3 of the NBA Finals in Oracle Arena on Wednesday night to take a 2-1 series lead on the Warriors, but afterwards the biggest stories involved folks sitting courtside.
The first was Mark Stevens, the minority owner of the Warriors, pushing Kyle Lowry after he dove into the stands for a loose ball, leading to a Warriors apology, Stevens not coming to any remaining Finals games, and LeBron James calling for a bigger punishment. Also involving Warriors ownership was a clip that went viral of Nicole Curran, wife of majority owner Joe Lacob, leaning over Beyoncé to talk to Jay-Z.
Beyoncé looked mildly annoyed and the video quickly became a meme on Twitter, but quickly got out of hand. Many attacked Curran on social media, and as ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported on Thursday, Curran had to shut down her Instagram due to death threats.
Just spoke to Nicole Curran, the wife of Warriors owner Joe Lacob, about the “incident “ with Beyoncé last night. She was in tears. Said she had been getting death threats on social media all night this morning she disabled her IG account just to make it stop.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) June 6, 2019
As Curran told Shelburne, the incident in question was simply her asking the couple what they wanted to drink, and because it was so loud she had to lean over to get Jay-Z’s response again.
Curran said she had no idea anything was even amiss until she got home and started seeing texts from friends and checked her social media. She’s invited Jay Z and Beyoncé to the game 3-4 times before. Last night she says she asked if they wanted drinks. Beyoncé asked for water
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) June 6, 2019
Curran says Jay Z asked for a vodka soda. She asked if he wanted lime with that. But it was loud in Oracle and she couldn’t hear, so she leaned over. That’s where the photos of Beyoncé looking askance at her come from.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) June 6, 2019
Curran says she then went to go get them those drinks. “There was no hostility. I was trying to be a good hostess,” she said. “I’ve never experienced cyber bullying like this. I can’t believe our players go through this. That kids go through this.“
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) June 6, 2019
It’s truly incredible that something so innocuous could lead to people sending death threats to someone else, but that’s apparently what happened. It’s one thing for there to be some jokes about how Beyoncé seemed a bit frustrated by Curran leaning over her to talk to Jay, but for it to be taken in any way serious enough to attack her is absurd.
