Tracy Morgan, Paul Simon, other stars celebrate SNL 50
The three-hour “SNL 50” anniversary special featured throwback skits, including a song from Adam Sandler looking back on the show’s history.
Tracy Morgan was ushered out of a New York Knicks game Monday night after becoming ill, forcing a pause in play to tend to the comedian’s health.
The “Saturday Night Live” star, who just returned for the sketch comedy show’s 50th anniversary special, was sitting courtside during a face-off between the Knicks and Miami Heat Monday when he reportedly became sick, vomiting and suffering a nosebleed, before being escorted out of his seat in a wheelchair, social media photos show.
In a post to Instagram Tuesday, Morgan revealed he was suffering from food poisoning and cracked a joke about being the New York team’s lucky charm.
“Thank you for all your concern! I’m doing ok now and doctors say it was food poisoning,” Morgan wrote alongside a photo of himself in a hospital bed. “Appreciate my MSG family for taking such good care of me and I need to shout out the crew that had to clean that up. Appreciate you!
“More importantly, the Knicks are now 1-0 when I throw up on the court so maybe I’ll have to break it out again in the playoffs,” the comedian quipped, adding “#goknicks.”
“We hope Tracy feels better soon and look forward to seeing him back courtside,” a spokesperson for Madison Square Garden, where the game took place, told USA TODAY in a statement Tuesday.
Tracy Morgan health issues preceded Knicks game incident
Morgan’s health struggles have been chronicled on and off the screen throughout his decades-long career. The “30 Rock” star was diagnosed with diabetes in 1996, a condition that later necessitated a kidney transplant.
He has also been open about his struggles with alcoholism, practicing sobriety for nearly 30 years.
In 2014, Morgan was involved in a multi-vehicle collision that left the comedian with several broken ribs and traumatic brain injury.
A Walmart 18-wheeler, driven by a trucker who had been awake for 24 hours, rear-ended a limousine van carrying Morgan and three other comedians who were returning from a gig, leading to a six-car pileup in on the New Jersey Turnpike. One of the passengers, Morgan’s friend and fellow comedian James “Jimmy Mack” McNair, was killed.
Morgan spent two weeks in a coma following the crash.
“When your room is ready, your room is ready,” Morgan told The Bergen Record, part of the USA TODAY Network, in 2017 of McNair’s death. “There’s no sense in me feeling guilty. I guess his room was ready. Mine wasn’t. I don’t care what you think it is. … You just gotta run a good race. You gotta stay on the righteous path, that’s all.”
In an interview with USA TODAY at a performance a year after the accident, Morgan thanked God for bringing him back to comedy.
“If God can get you to it, he’ll get you through it,” he said. “And I’m here. My wife kept saying, ‘We’ll get through it, we’ll get back to the funny.’ And we did that tonight…It’s time for us to start laughing again. And that’s what we did.”
Morgan returned to late-night last week, with a brief appearance on John Mulaney’s new live interview show with Netflix.
Fans, Knicks speak out after Tracy Morgan taken off court in a wheelchair
After Monday’s incident, well-wishes flowed in from fans and players.
“We hope everything’s good with Tracy Morgan,” Knicks guard Josh Hart said after the game. “Avid, lifetime Knick fan so prayers go out to him and his health and safety.”
“I think ppl are forgetting that Tracy Morgan almost died after a Walmart semi truck collided with his car, killed passenger’s, and nearly killed him and others,” one fan wrote on X. “Health complications are real and need to be taken into consideration!”
“Folks think it’s funny that Tracy Morgan vomited on himself at a basketball game. We still didn’t learn anything from Chadwick,” another X user chimed in, referencing Chadwick Boseman who died in 2020 of cancer. “We still don’t view Black men with any type of sympathy, unless they are dead, in which we respond with sorrow or anger.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use disorders, you can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357. The service is free, confidential and available in English and Spanish.