By James Nye
Daily Mail
RALEIGH, N.C. — A wheelchair-bound basketball fan said today he owed his life to the quick-thinking actions of his team’s star player who plucked him from the ground and protected him from a wildly celebrating crowd.
Storming towards the players as the buzzer sounded for Saturday’s stunning 84-76 win for North Carolina State over No.1 Duke in Raleigh, die-hard fan Will Privette suddenly found himself trapped in the middle of a crowd of hundreds.
Coming to his rescue, six-foot-nine C.J. Leslie spotted the stricken fan, scooped him up from the floor making sure he didn’t get crushed to death: ‘He held me for a couple of minutes. I was screaming and yelling,’ said the fortunate basketball fan.