Victor Wembanyama said he had no idea that Britney Spears had been the person involved in an incident with his security team Wednesday night.
TMZ reported Thursday that the pop singer has filed a police report after the San Antonio Spurs’ team security director backhand slapped her in the face at a Las Vegas restaurant. The rookie, the No. 1 overall pick in the recent NBA Draft, is in Vegas to play in the NBA Summer League.
Spears, 41, had approached Wembanyama to ask if he would take a photograph with her. The singer fell to the ground and her glasses flew off after the blow.
“I was walking with some security of the team to some restaurant, we were in a hall, there were a lot of people calling me obviously,” Wembanyama said Thursday (via ESPN’s Cassidy Hubbarth). “There was one person who was calling me … I couldn’t stop, but that person grabbed me from behind.
“I didn’t see what happened, because I was walking. … I just know that security pushed her away, I don’t know with how much force. I didn’t stop to look, I kept walking.”
Wembanyama said he ate dinner, got back to his hotel room and didn’t think anything about the incident until a couple of hours later, when someone told him Spears had been involved in the incident.
“Actually I didn’t know for a couple of hours … I thought it was no big deal,” he said.
And when he found out it was Spears?
“At first I was like, ‘No, you’re joking,'” Wembanyama said. “Turns out it was Britney Spears. I didn’t know because I never saw her face.”
.@vicw_32 on the situation last night involving Britney Spears pic.twitter.com/I0mHJvJzs4
— Cassidy Hubbarth (@CassidyHubbarth) July 6, 2023
According to TMZ, the security director, identified as Damian Smith, later went over to Spears at her table and apologized, reportedly saying, “You understand how it is when you’re being swarmed by fans.” Spears accepted the apology, but later filed a police report.
TMZ reported that Las Vegas police are conducting a “criminal investigation” and treating the incident “as serious as a heart attack.”
