Jason Day Comments on Moment LeBron James Fell into His Wife Ellie at Cavs Game

We all know the risks that come with sitting courtside at an NBA game, where athletic specimens exceeding 250 pounds storm up and down the court—and occasionally out of the field of play.

Players leap into the stands for loose balls all the time, but rarely does the occurrence get much attention. That changed when LeBron James fell into Ellie, the wife of PGA superstar Jason Day, during a game on Dec. 18, sending her to the hospital on a stretcher with concussion symptoms.

Day fielded a whirlwind of criticism for not adequately defending his wife on the play but didn’t speak publicly about the incident until Thursday when meeting with reporters at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions, per Alex Myers of Golf Digest:   

"

It's just amazing how fast the guys are. Really, people that think I should have jumped in front of Ellie; they must have the fastest reaction time. I'm trying to learn how to get my arm in front of Ellie every time now. But it's amazing how quick it happened. You're sitting there, and you know things have happened in the past with guys going into the crowd and stuff, but you're not really expecting it.

All of a sudden, we see a ball come down and across and I go to kind of put my hand, because I, you know, thought it was going to go out-of-bounds and I was going to throw it back to someone. All of a sudden it comes flying from the side and no one knows what to do and he just jumps. And the photo—the photo didn't do it justice.

"

Day went on to applaud his wife for handling the hit from James, arguably one of the strongest and most athletic players in the game, per Doug Ferguson of the Associated Press:

"

It happened so quick. I'm going to do that? I'm not going to stop a 260-pound guy that's 6-8 running full-speed. Ellie took it like a champ, though. Once I saw her, she was on the ground, she was kind of freaking out a little bit about her neck, and once they started doing the test on her—she's moving her legs, hands, feet, arms—I knew everything was going to be OK. She had post-concussion symptoms.

"

Ellie Day spent the night in a Cleveland hospital but left the following morning.

She took to Twitter to assure everyone she was OK but also to defend her husband:

Here is the incident Ellie is referring to in the tweet above, courtesy ABC News:

Day is one of the most liked and respected golfers on the PGA Tour, and that he handled Tuesday’s media session in a professional manner is another testament to his likability.

Maybe the next time he ventures to a basketball game, he'll sit a few rows up.