All-star games are usually known for being low-contact, injury-free affairs, but that didn’t prevent Aubrey Plaza — a spectator at this weekend’s WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix — from tearing her ACL during the festivities.
The actress, an admitted hardcore basketball fan, attended the WNBA’s Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest crutches-free on Friday night, but when the actual All-Star Game took place Saturday at Phoenix’s Footprint Center, the actress had crutches and an ice pack (and a beverage) in hand and a brace around her leg.
According to the Arizona Republic, Plaza took part in a game of Knockout at the Phoenix Mercury practice facility at some point Saturday, and during the course of that game, Plaza tore her ACL. However, the injury didn’t prevent her from missing the all-star game itself later that day.
This is the second time Plaza has torn her ACL playing basketball, and she ironically talked about the first incident at a live taping of a podcast Friday with soccer star Megan Rapinoe and WNBA legend Sue Bird just hours before the second tear. During the taping, Plaza reminisced about playing in disguise in order to play alongside her sister in a Los Angeles rec league, SF Gate reports. (The first ACL injury was also previously discussed in a Conan O’Brien interview and Plaza’s Pistol Shrimps documentary.)
“I decided to play in disguise as somebody else,” Plaza said. “I was like, ‘No one will know it’s me. It’s great. And then, in the middle of the game, I went up for a shot and tore my ACL on the court in a wig. That’s kind of like the worst-case scenario because I was trying to go undercover, and I just snapped my knee in half, basically.”
Plaza continued, “I had to be carried off the court, and that’s when all eyes were on me. People started to wonder, ‘Is that a wig? What’s going on over there?’”
Michaela Coel in ‘The Christophers.’Claudette Barius/NEON
