Russ Smith escorts high schooler who was stood up at homecoming

Louisville senior Russ Smith attended a high school basketball game in Kentucky on Friday night, and before he knew it he was part of the show. But this show had nothing to do with his basketball ability. Smith was asked to escort a girl’s freshman basketball player who had been stood up at homecoming.

Smith was at Manual High School to support his friend, who is an assistant coach for visiting team Eastern High School. Tonysha Curry, a freshman at Manual, waited for her homecoming escort to show up and he never did. That’s when she spotted Smith.

“I had an escort, and he had won the homecoming for king,” Curry told WDRB in Louisville. “But he hadn’t been coming to the practices. So, he didn’t come to the game apparently. I was like, ‘There’s Russ Smith. Oh my God. What if he escorted me?’ Everybody was like, ‘Go do it! Go do it!'”

Smith asked if that was allowed and was happy to step in when told that he could.

“I didn’t know,” he said. “It just all happened too fast. She said, ‘Please, it would really make my day, make my night.’ It actually made my day probably more than hers. I’m kind of really happy about it.”

While Smith seemed genuinely flattered, I still think it’s safe to say the young lady was more excited.

“I could not breathe,” Curry said. “I was almost in tears crying. We even had conversations. We were talking to each other. Oh my god. Best day of my life.”

It’s very rare that your date not showing up could turn into the best day of your life, so we’re all glad Smith happened to be in attendance. Kudos to him for being a great sport about it.