On 5 June, Beyoncé and Jay Z slipped into their courtside seats to watch the Golden State Warriors play against the Toronto Raptors in Game Three of the NBA Finals.

For anyone who cares about such things, the Raptors won. However, that fact seems to have gone unnoticed in the wake of a so-called “dispute” between Beyoncé and Nicole Curran, the wife of Warriors’ owner, Joe Lacob.

In a 13-second clip uploaded to ESPN’s Twitter account, Curran, who was seated between Beyoncé and Lacob, leans around the Lemonade artist to speak with Jay-Z. Before he has time to answer, Jay and Bey make eye contact with fans across the court and begin to wave and smile at them. However, Bey’s smile fades as Curran continues to lean over to talk to her husband.

In the last two seconds of the video, Beyoncé is seen adjusting herself in her seat.

It was the video that launched a thousand memes – the majority of which were pretty hilarious.

However, some of Bey’s most die-hard fans took things a little too far when they decided that Curran must be the so-called “Becky with the good hair” (the ‘Other Woman’ character from Bey’s song of the same title, allegedly about Jay-Z’s infidelity).

“I would leave the earth if Beyoncé looked this ready to smack me,” one user wrote, later adding, “THE NERVE TO INVADE BEYONCE’S PERSONAL SPACE WHILE WEARING THOSE BOOTS,” referring to Curran’s glittery gold thigh-high boots.

Others insisted that the Beyhive “gonna make sure she’s not an issue by third quarter at the latest”.

And it wasn’t long before fans found Curran’s official Instagram account and began sharing countless strings of bee emojis.

Curran has since disabled her Instagram account. Indeed, as she told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, she felt forced to do so because she was getting “death threats on social media.”

So now, in a bid to put an end to the online bullying, Beyoncé’s publicist has called upon fans to stop their crusade against Curran.

“I am looking back today at the start of The OTRII tour, one year ago. It was a place of joy, unimaginable entertainment from two of the best performers in the world, and a place of love,” Yvette Noel-Schure captioned an Instagram photo of Beyoncé and Jay from their tour.

“Every single day on that tour I saw love. Which is why I also want to speak here to the beautiful BeyHive.”

Noel-Schure went on to explain that although the love fans have for Beyoncé “runs deep” that same love “has to be given to every human.”

“It will bring no joy to the person you love so much if you spew hate in her name. We love you,” Noel-Schure added.

Not that it should matter AT ALL – because, y’know, women should be able to speak to whoever the hell they want about whatever the hell they want – it’s worth noting that Curran’s conversation with Jay Z revolved almost entirely around his drinks order.

“I was just trying to be a good hostess,” Curran told Shelburne, explaining that she had offered to fetch drinks for the Carters.

Beyoncé asked for water while Jay asked for a vodka soda, Curran explained, prompting her to ask if the rapper “wanted a lime with that.”

Unfortunately, the Oracle Arena was so loud that she couldn’t hear his response, so she was forced to lean over Bey to ask again. As to Bey’s smile disappearing? Well, she’s a human being, not an android. And, as such, the singer is not programmed to sit grinning like an idiot on a near-constant basis.

It’s a point which Curran clarified herself on Instagram, before being forced to disable comments.

“Listen Beehive. I respect Queen B. I love her! I talked to her husband twice tonight. First, to take a drink order for them both when they arrived as they were our guests,” she said in a comment captured by The Shade Room. “Second to explain why I gave his wife a rose from a fan.”

Curran added: “All of this has been taken out of context. I am a happily married woman.

“Telling me to kill myself????? Somehow I don’t think she would support this.”

We don’t think so either, to be honest. After all, what does it say about us that trashing someone’s reputation on social media appears to be a national sport? Why are we forever spoiling for a fight? Whatever happened to empathy? It’s time to reassess our behaviour and get in formation stat.

Image: Getty