Wife of golfer Day taken out by LeBron in hustle for loose ball

Eric Freeman

Fans who sit courtside at NBA games eventually encounter the possibility that a very large athlete will fall into or on top of them with little warning. Ellie Day, the wife of professional golfer and 2015 PGA Championship winner Jason Day, discovered as much during a very scary scene in the fourth quarter of Thursday's matchup between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena.

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With several minutes left in regulation, LeBron James went bounding towards the sideline in pursuit of a loose ball to avoid a Cavs turnover. James was not successful and made contact with Day, sending her falling to the ground. She remained on the ground for several minutes as medical staff attended and spoke to her before she was carried off on a stretcher. Take a look at the incident here:

 

As you can see, LeBron returned to the sidelines after a timeout to check on Day. TNT's Craig Sager reports that she was taken upstairs at the arena for more suitable medical attention. Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reported later that she was taken to an area hospital, and was released early Friday morning.

Day (neé Harvey) grew up in Ohio and lives with her Australian-born husband in Westerville, a suburb of Columbus. The Days are regulars at Cavs games, enough so that we featured Ellie on our site in October when J.R. Smith bought and gifted cotton candy to their son during a preseason game in Columbus. Smith and Jason Day have apparently become friends, and the Cavs guard can be seen checking in with him to make sure his wife was OK.

The couple also posed for a photo posted to the team's official Twitter account before the fall:

Up 98-91 at the time Day was carried off, the Cavaliers held on for a 104-100 victory over the Thunder to end a six-game winning streak. Cleveland went on a 20-2 run over the end of the third and beginning of the fourth quarter to turn an eight-point deficit into a 10-point advantage. OKC had a chance to tie the game with on their last possession, but Russell Westbrook (who scored their last nine points) misfired on a three-pointer. LeBron was fouled with 0.7 seconds left and intentionally missed his second attempt to run out the clock.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!