Britney Spears got unexpectedly hit in the face as she attempted to take a photo with one of professional sports’ next potential superstars.
Spears, 41, wanted to snap a selfie with basketball phenomenon Victor Wembanyama, resulting in her getting smacked by the NBA rookie’s security.
The incident happened in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Wembanyama is expected to take the basketball court in an anticipated Summer League game for the San Antonio Spurs.
Following a dinner with her husband and two other individuals at the ARIA Hotel, Spears apparently spotted the recent No. 1 draft pick and went over to ask for a selfie.
However, the Hit Me Baby One More Time singer ended up getting backhanded and knocked down by a member of security trying to protect the NBA rookie from getting overcrowded or harmed.
While Spears filed a police report about what happened, it’s reportedly not being handled as a police matter. However, the incident seemingly left Spears stung and upset.
Britney Spears backhanded and knocked down while asking for a selfie
Per TMZ, Spears was smacked and knocked down by Damian Smith, Director of Team Security for the Spurs. The incident happened around 8:30 Pacific Time at the ARIA Hotel while Spears was out for dinner at Catch restaurant.
She apparently spotted the NBA rookie and walked over, then tapped him on the back and right shoulder. Smith instantly backhanded Britney, causing her glasses to fall off and the singer to fall to the floor.
Reportedly, Spears returned to the Catch restaurant she’d been dining at with her husband, Sam Asghari, and others. Smith went over to apologize to the singer, indicating he hadn’t known who she was and reminding her they had a tough job dealing with so many fans.
“You understand how it is when you’re being swarmed by fans,” Smith reportedly told Spears and her group.
Despite the attempt by Smith to smooth things over, TMZ indicated that Spears later filed a police report for the alleged assault. However, the police determined that it wasn’t a criminal matter as Smith was acting in the interest of Wembanyama to protect him from harm.
Spears is reportedly a fan of Victor Wembanyama
The Spurs are in Vegas for the NBA’s Vegas Summer League, which features all 30 NBA teams as they give younger players from their rosters time to audition their skills.
Wembanyama is among those players, as the 7-foot-4 Frenchman was a heralded prospect heading into last month’s NBA Draft. The Spurs selected him as the first overall pick in the draft, with expectations arriving that he could be their franchise’s next superstar.
His team takes the court on Friday against the Charlotte Hornets, with many people anticipating that they’ll see him in action on the court with and against other NBA players.
Based on TMZ’s report, Spears is a fan of the Spurs’ rookie, which prompted her to try to get a selfie. However, that attempt clearly went awry. As of this writing, Wembanyama hasn’t publicly commented about the incident. Spears has not commented either.
As one might expect, Wembanyama wasn’t the only one who got recognized in Vegas, as Spears also got swarmed by fans when she’d initially entered the casino to have dinner with her group.
Spears continues to call Thousand Oaks, California, home but previously worked in Las Vegas as part of her four-year concert residency from 2013 to 2017. She has not done another residency there since then. Instead, Spears focused on gaining freedom from her father and team’s control over her life by ending their 13-year conservatorship in 2021.
That situation left things fractured with Spears and members of her family. However, the singer had been in the headlines for reconciling with her mother, who showed up at Spears’ doorstep several months ago to discuss their relationship.