Beyoncé and Jay-Z came to Oakland for Game 3 of the NBA Finals last night, and a side-eye moment that may have been taken out of context led to a meme and a social media mob situation.
Just to back up, Queen Bey and Jay were invited to the game Wednesday night as guests of Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob and his wife Nicole Curran. Curran was seated next to Beyoncé, who was in between Curran and Jay-Z. And TV cameras caught a moment where Curran leaned across Beyoncé to say something to Jay-Z, and Beyoncé looked mildly annoyed. There is apparently a bit of side-eye, and it's unclear if something Curran said rubbed her the wrong way, or she didn't appreciate the leaning, or what. Regardless, it shouldn't have been a big deal, but the internet has a way of blowing things up.
Beyonce gave the Epic Court-side Side Eye to Warriors Owner's Wife 👀pic.twitter.com/xu37mUX9PW
— SportsGossip.com (@sportsgossip) June 6, 2019
Beyonce Gives Epic Side-eye to Wife of Warriors Owner https://t.co/PacqReHpEt
— TMZ (@TMZ) June 6, 2019
Nicole Curran (wife of Warriors owner Joe Lacob) says she's been getting death threats on social media from Beyonce fans for her interaction with Jay-Z last night, per @ramonashelburne. pic.twitter.com/MIkLQV9SP9
— Yahoo Sports NBA (@YahooSportsNBA) June 6, 2019
Curran says she was flooded with death threats overnight, and people telling her to kill herself, and that was all before TMZ picked up the story at 6 a.m. today.
She attempted to calm the storm by addressing the Beyhive directly on Instagram, but that apparently didn't work, and Curran has since disabled her Insta. "I respect Queen B. I love her!" Curran wrote. "All of this has been taken out of context. I am a happily married woman."
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
Wait so the beyhive is telling the wife of the Warrior’s owner to kill herself all because she was polite enough to take their drink order for them? Beyoncé stans really need help if you think Bey is here for this behavior pic.twitter.com/B2mNjoGroX
— Vincent Alexander (@Vincent89Alex) June 6, 2019
Beyoncé hasn't commented on the incident and she likely won't — this is the last thing she posted on Instagram, Wednesday night in the Bay Area, somewhere.
The incident definitely reeks of some problematic, gendered sensationalism — yes, everyone keeps a super-close eye on Beyoncé and we all know she's got a jealousy thing going on, but is it really necessary to create drama out of nothing just because two wealthy women are involved? Even the usually more pro-woman Jezebel posted a piece in which a writer dove into Curran's Instagram before she shut it off, taking note of her photo-taking habits in frivolous fashion. "From what I can tell, Nicole Curran is an exceedingly rich woman married to a Bay Area power broker who loves posting photos of her expensive shoes. In bed! I’d comment on the sanitary concerns, but I think we can agree she probably doesn’t step outside much in these," the writer says regarding a photo that is no longer online.
As one Twitterer who has probably also attracted the wrath of the Beyhive put it, "When Beyoncé acts like a bitch to the warriors owners wife it’s 'that’s queen B, omg she’s so fearless!' But if Kanye does anything like that it’s 'hes an asshole with a napoleon complex.' Which is it?"
