The Internet Goes Wild After Atlanta Hawks Fan Suffers Brutal Knee Injury During On-Court Promotion: “Literal Nightmare”

I was really hoping this was an April Fool’s Joke.

Last night, tragedy struck at State Farm Arena. The Atlanta Hawks were taking on the Portland Trailblazers when someone on the court went down with a horrific knee injury. Was it a player for the Hawks? Nope. Did it happen to be a member of the Trailblazers team that was in town for the tilt? Not that either.

It was a fan.

If you’ve ever been to a sporting event, you know that during timeouts and halftime, the entertainment doesn’t stop. In fact, the in-game entertainment has gotten more and more complex over the years. You used to just have a fan take a shot from half court for whatever prize that’s able to be offered. Now? You’ve got two fans pitted against each other in a game of tic-tac-toe that requires way too much physical activity and sharp movements for the common man.

As you’ll see in this video from last night’s Hawks game… it happened on April Fool’s Day, but this was apparently no joke:

BROOOOOO AN ATLANTA HAWKS FAN JUST TORE HIS ACL DURING A HALFTIME LAYUP CONTEST pic.twitter.com/Idk6ZPStQg

— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod (@big_business_) April 2, 2025

Literally a nightmare scenario… he was later stretchered off the floor.

Not only did that man appear to tear his ACL (and PCL, MCL and whatever other CL’s are in a knee), but he also suffered the embarrassment of injuring himself in front of thousands of people… while shooting a layup. Now there’s a chance that the floor was a tad slippery, and that was what caused the cartoonish fall and subsequent knee injury. That’s not necessarily his fault if that’s the case… but the internet isn’t offering up a lot of sympathy:

Me at the front office the very next day with my lawyers… pic.twitter.com/WzMkZ3Yzoj

— 8TFour (@8TFour) April 2, 2025

Not to put a point on it but.

Slipping during a layup contest during the halftime show at a Hawks game in Atlanta and tearing my ACL before I even scored a point and television cameras captured it all as the baddie MC got flustered is my literal nightmare.

— kyle alex brett (@kyalbr) April 2, 2025

James on CNN tomorrow pic.twitter.com/0KMAChg0OU

— Jono Barnes (@JonoBarnes) April 2, 2025

Tic-Tac-Toe-My-Knee-Up

*Hope the dude gets a large settlement

— Tim Fletcher (@FletcherShow) April 2, 2025

pic.twitter.com/2nyEincNqX

— Salty Buccaneer (@SaltyBuc91) April 2, 2025

First prize: $25 gift card to Hooters.
Second prize: free anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery.

— Tom Pilla (@tpilla) April 2, 2025

You want to hear the worst part of it all?

There’s a high likelihood that “James” signed a waiver before he went out onto the court for the contest. I actually used to work on an in-game entertainment role at my alma mater, and when we would choose people from out of the crowd for our scheduled entertainment throughout the game, the first thing we would do is have them sign a waiver that basically says, “If you get hurt, it’s not our fault.”

If this guy signed his name on the dotted line, the Atlanta Hawks might be free from all liability. I’d hope that they’d help him out a little bit (maybe not cover his medical expenses, but at least give him something), but as former MLB Team President David Samson says in the video below, the organization could do as much or as little as they wish if James did, in fact, sign the waiver beforehand.

Former MLB Team President @DavidPSamson weighs in on what this fan might've gotten from the team

(probably nothing) https://t.co/Zew9oQ8Xcz pic.twitter.com/JYlyUZINWp

— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) April 2, 2025