Nonspecific Jumbotron Proposal Ruins Lakers Fan's Life

Story by Emily Wilson 

| Published Mar 9, 2010

Feb. 28 was the best day of Katie Wittington’s life.

“My boyfriend proposed at a Lakers game!” Whittington exclaimed. “I looked up at the Jumbotron, and there it was: ‘Katie, Will You Marry Me? Love Mike.’”

While Whittington and her fiance, Michael Hughes, are celebrating their upcoming nuptials, Michael Sterns, another Lakers fan, is less than elated.

“All of my buddies were busy, and my girlfriend was out of town, so I brought this chick Kate I’ve been doing on the side to the game,” Sterns said. “Then, at halftime, while I’m texting score updates to my boys, she just looses her shit, jumping up and down and screaming 'Yes!' That’s when I saw the big screen with the message. I guess she thought I was proposing to her.”

“I just put the messages up on the screen. It’s not my fault that no one specified which Mike and Katie,” said stadium manager Carl Rimerez.

Sterns' ‘something on the side,’ Katherine McGahey, is ecstatic about the proposal she assumes was directed at her.

“Obviously I said yes, Mikey!” McGahey said. “Now that I know he’s finally serious about settling down, I can be completely honest with him. It was such a relief to know someone’s going to be there to take care of my massive amount of credit card debt.”

Sterns is taking his unintentional proposal to McGahey in stride.

“I am so fucked,” Sterns said. “My brother Josh was at the game, and he called our mom and told her. Plus, a few guys from work texted me to say congratulations. The whole thing got really out hand. I’m going to tell Kate I don’t want to get married soon. In the meantime, I really hope no one tells my girlfriend.”