Regina King almost got crushed by 7 feet and 249 pounds of basketball player on Wednesday night as she took in the visiting Philadelphia 76ers’ game against the New York Knicks.
The “If Beale Street Could Talk” star narrowly missed being a casualty of 76ers center Joel Embiid when he raced after a loose ball during the Feb. 13 matchup in New York’s Madison Square Garden. During the second half of the Sixers’ 126-111 win over the Knicks, Embiid bounded into the stands and avoided hitting the Oscar nominee, who put her arms over her head to protect herself. Instead, Embiid kicked and fell onto an MSG Network statistician, whom he helped up. He later apologized to the statistician.
“It’s good that I saved her life, I guess, but someone else had to, like, take that,” Embiid later told ESPN. “I’m sorry about that.”
He added the unplanned moment was something “I haven’t done that since my rookie season — and it just happened.”
As for how King is holding up, she tweeted Wednesday thanking the Lord and the NBA star for his “athletic abilities.”
“Crisis averted 🙏🏾” she added.
Yoooo. Thank you God and @JoelEmbiid for your athletic abilities. Crisis averted 🙏🏾 https://t.co/LLTtzECuV4
— Regina King (@ReginaKing) February 14, 2019
Fans of the actress were equally as thankful that Embiid didn’t fall on top of her.
“Whew! Thank God. I would hate to see you win your Oscar in a neck brace.”
“@ReginaKing girl! You are a national treasure! Do we need to bubble wrap you from now on?!?”
“I love that he made sure he didn’t so much as let his foot touch her. Shout out to the dude in back he landed on. He took that L on behalf of chivalry.”
“🗣PROTECT REGINA AT ALL COSTS!!”
“He almost knocked the Huey Freeman out of the queen!😳”
