Britney Spears is addressing an incident that occurred between her and a member of the San Antonio Spurs’ security after she attempted to approach basketball player Victor Wembanyama for a photo.
Spears was allegedly slapped by the director of team security, Damian Smith, in an effort to protect the Spurs player when she got near him at a restaurant in Las Vegas, Nevada, with husband Sam Asghari on Wednesday.
In a statement posted to her Instagram stories, Spears detailed the encounter Thursday. While not directly addressing Wembanyama by name, Spears wrote she spotted the athlete while at a restaurant after seeing him in the lobby of her hotel earlier in the day. She wrote she wanted to “congratulate him on his success” and when she spotted the player, tapped him on the shoulder because it was “really loud” in the restaurant.
“Traumatic experiences are not new to me, and I have had my fair share of them. I was not prepared for what happened to me last night,” Spears wrote. “I am aware of the player’s statement where he mentions ‘I grabbed him from behind,’ but I simply tapped him on the shoulder. His security then backhanded me in the face without looking back, in front of a crowd.”
Wembanyama addressed the encounter between Spears and his security team during a post-practice interview, according to a video statement shared on social media by ESPN reporter Cassidy Hubbarth.
The player claimed he did not know Spears was the one who approached him at the restaurant.
“There were a lot of people calling me, obviously. One person was calling me but … I couldn’t stop,” Wembanyama said. “That person grabbed me from behind. I didn’t see what happened because I was walking straight, but that person grabbed me from behind, not on my shoulder. I just know that security pushed her away. I don’t know with how much force though … I didn’t stop to look. I kept walking.”
He added: “Turns out it was Britney Spears, but I didn’t know because I never saw her face. I just kept walking straight. “
Spears added that while the assault is “super embarrassing to share with the world,” she wanted to share the experience “to urge people in the public eye to set an example and treat all people with respect.”
“I get swarmed by people all the time,” Spears wrote. “In fact, that night, I was swarmed by a group of at least 20 fans. My security team didn’t hit any of them.”
The Las Vegas Police Department’s public information officer told USA TODAY in a statement that “at approximately 11 p.m., LVMPD officers responded to a property in the 3700 block of Las Vegas Boulevard regarding a battery investigation,” but did not confirm whether the incident involved Spears.
LVPD added that while the incident was documented in a police report, no arrests or citations had been issued.
Spears’ attorney Mathew Rosengart declined comment to The Associated Press, citing the police investigation. USA TODAY has reached out to Spears’ representative and has requested a copy of the police report from LVPD.
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Contributing: Cydney Henderson, USA TODAY; Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
