Jason Day explains why he didn’t save his wife from charging LeBron

JASON Day had a completely understandable excuse for not shielding his wife from basketball superstar LeBron James.

Cleveland Cavaliers v Golden State Warriors

AUSSIE golfer Jason Day certainly proved that where he goes action follows during his end-of-year break from the tour.

Day used contacts made on the PGA Tour to gain ground access at the Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game in the Motor City in early December, and watched from the sidelines as Aaron Rodgers threw a Hail Mary pass to win the game in the final second.

Sign him up. Maybe he can get some separation and get open for Rodgers. pic.twitter.com/e422U5K1lJ

— Adam Sarson (@Adam_Sarson) December 4, 2015

But it was an appearance by Day and wife Ellie at a Cleveland Cavaliers basketball game which really stole the headlines, when Cavs superstar LeBron James shockingly crashed into Ellie as she watched courtside.

Vision of the incident went viral and Ellie had to be stretchered out of the arena, although she recovered well after suffering from concussion.

Some took potshots at Day for not stepping in front of James to protect his partner, but the laid-back Aussie gave a very reasonable explanation for why he didn’t at a press conference ahead of the season-opening Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii this week.

“It happened so quick, I’m going to do that?” Day said. “I’m not going to stop a 260-pound guy that’s 6-8 running full speed.”

Ellie Day is treated courtside.

Day said the incident happened so quickly he had no time to react. “All of a sudden LeBron comes flying in from the side and no one knows what to do and he just jumps,” the 28-year-old said. “The photo didn’t do it justice. The photo that was going around ... made me look even worse then what it really was. Ellie took it like a champ though, she took it like a champ.”

James quickly posted his best wishes on Twitter and Day said it wasn’t long before his wife was back in good health.

“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, feet, hands, her arms, I knew everything was going to be OK,” he said. “We just had to make sure we got to the hospital without her moving her neck.”

“And everything was going good,” he added. “She had a concussion, post-concussion symptoms.”

Ellie Day I hope you're doing okay! My apologies! Hope u guys come back to another game soon. Love LJ!

— LeBron James (@KingJames) December 18, 2015

Ellie defended her husband’s response in a statement posted to Twitter late last year. “Wow!! It’s official. More messages from getting ploughed over by Lebron than Jason winning a major. HA,” she wrote.

“First of all, I am okay!! I am incredibly sore and exhausted. Being tackled by that large man I would compare to a minor car accident. My head and neck hit pretty hard so it was really scary. My whole body feels like it was hit by a truck ...

“I didn’t remember until 2am seeing the ball come toward me. It was a blur. To the crazies that think Jason should have protected me — if he had had time to react, so would have I. Also, I would not have liked both dudes landing on me. LeBron is huge and had such momentum he could not have stopped!!”

Ellie and Jason Day.

Originally published as Jason Day explains why he didn’t save his wife from charging LeBron