Beyoncé and Nicole Curran Courtside Interaction

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Overview

Beyoncé / Nicole Curran Courtside Interaction refers to a moment in Game 3 of the 2019 NBA Finals in which Nicole Curran, wife of Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, leaned over Beyoncé to speak to Beyoncé's husband Jay-Z. For a brief moment, Beyoncé appears to look irritated at Curran. Initially, this was joked about online as users interpreted Beyoncé's look as her fuming about Curran possibly flirting with Jay-Z. However, the situation quickly escalated as Beyoncé fans harassed Curran on Instagram with death threats, causing her to deactivate her account.

Background

On June 5th, 2019, during Game 3 of the 2019 NBA Finals, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Curran, and Lacob were seated next to each other in that order. At one point, Curran leaned over Beyoncé to speak to Jay-Z. The moment was captured by the ESPN cameras (shown below).

Jay-Z and Beyoncé are courtside for Game 3 😎 pic.twitter.com/6mmJuN8Odn
— ESPN (@espn) June 6, 2019

Of note, Jay-Z has a history of alleged infidelity with Beyoncé, which has supposedly been the cause of his elevator fight with Solange and inspired several tracks off Beyoncé's album Lemonade.

Developments

After ESPN tweeted the clip, Twitter users joked that Beyoncé looked incensed at Curran. User @_brandoc^[1] joked "beyonce is so annoyed by this woman and hov gon’ hear about it on the jet" (shown below, left). Twitter user @KaraRBrown^[2] posted "I would leave the earth if Beyonce looked this ready to smack me," gaining over 4,800 retweets and 32,000 likes (shown below, right).

Brandon Caldwell @brandoc beyonce is so annoyed by this woman and hov gon' hear about it on the jet fapen Plae JAY-Z BEYONCE 0:11 From ESPN

KB @KaraRBrown I would leave the earth if Beyonce looked this ready to smack me ESPN @espn 17h Jay-Z and Beyoncé are courtside for Game 3 Paper Ple BEYONCE JAY-Z 0:11 10:38 PM Jun 5, 2019 Twitter Web App

The following day, ESPN senior writer Ramona Shelburne^[5] tweeted that Curran had invited Beyoncé and Jay-Z to games several times before and that in the video, she was asking the couple what they wanted to drink (shown below).

Ramona Shelburne @ramonashelburne 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 2:10 PM Jun 6, 2019 from Oakland, CA Twitter for iPhone

Nevertheless, after the interaction spread online, Beyoncé fans discovered Curran's Instagram and flooded it with the bee emoji, representative of the "Beyhive," as Beyoncé fans call themselves.^[3] Shelburne^[4] also reported that the harassment included death threats, leading Curran to deactivate her account (shown below, right). The story was covered by Uproxx^[6] and Buzzfeed.^[3]