It's impossible to get the image of that face dissolving into his hands after having his heart ripped in two after falling victim to a straight up dastardly prank.
Whitehall was one of many London celebrities to turn out for the highly-publicised showdown between Aussie Ben Simmons' 76ers and Eastern Conference leaders Boston at the sold out O2 Arena in London.
The English comedian clearly had no idea the fix was in when he was called out to shoot a three-point shot to win a prize during a TV timeout as the Celtics were running away to a 114-103 win.
Whitehall, the star of Bad Education, was called on to hit his three-point shot from the top of the key while blindfolded.
His shot came out flat as it left his hands and sailed under the bucket, taking a huge piece of the net on its way.
Unfortunately, while he was still blindfolded, 76ers players and event staff whipped the crowd into a frenzy and were jumping around in celebrations as if he'd actually nailed the miracle shot.
As Whitehall removed the blindfold his eyes were greeted with a scene of absolute pandemonium.
At first he couldn't believe it.
He shouldn't have. But he did.
Big mistake.
Whitehall then β as would be appropriate for landing a blindfolded three-point shot β went berserk hugging those around him and raising his arms in the air in triumph.
It was at this point that the match day presentation staff decided to drop the bomb on the poor unsuspecting victim.
Whitehall was made to look up to the giant scoreboard to watch a replay of his momentous feat.
It was then that the star's world instantly began crumbling around him as he watched the ball sail under the rim. As the stadium announcer repeated the words, "Oh no" Whitehall buried his face in his hands.
The 76ers staff thought it was pretty damn funny, though.
Most NBA commentators couldn't deal with the ice cold set-up.
Whitehall took his epic burn in good spirit, at least.
That good nature might be why he was selected for the prank ahead of some of the other celebrities that were courtside to see his downfall.
The host of English Premier League stars in attendance included Arsenal's Hector Bellerin and Chelsea's Eden Hazard.
Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne was also on hand, as were Manchester United's iconic former manager Alex Ferguson and former Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack and British cycling hero Bradley Wiggins.
They all watched the 76ers crash just as hard as Whitehall had done earlier.
After leading by 22 points early in the second quarter, the Sixers were blown away 66-46 in the second half.
Star guard Kyrie Irving scored 20 points with seven assists and six rebounds for the Celtics. Jaylen Brown scored 21 points and Marcus Morris had 19 with eight rebounds as the Eastern Conference-leading Celtics stretched their NBA winning streak to seven games.
Rookie Jayson Tatum helped turn the tide, scoring 11 of his 16 points in the decisive third period.
"I don't think we were ready for the punch they gave us in the first half," Celtics coach Brad Stevens acknowledged.
"There was no real panic, but we had to play a lot better than we were."
The 76ers had come out strong, with JJ Redick scoring 13 of his 22 points in the first half.
Cameroon's Joel Embiid added 16 points and Aussie Simmons chipped in 15 for Philadelphia and for a time it looked as if the eighth regular-season NBA game to be played in London could see the 76ers on the right side of the kind of blowout that fans there saw last year, when the Denver Nuggets trounced the Indiana Pacers 140-112.
But the Celtics tightened the screws defensively and closed out the second quarter on a 15-3 scoring run before out-scoring the Sixers 37-22 to seize control in the third period.
"We stayed the course," Stevens said.
"We've done that all year." Tatum, like Simmons a rookie of the year candidate, came alive in the third, making his first five shots as Boston cut the deficit to one point.
Boston took the lead for the first time on a dunk by Daniel Theis that made it 69-68 with six minutes left in the third.
Boston joined the NBA champion Golden State Warriors as the only teams to come back from 20-point deficits in more than one game this season.
Irving acknowledged that their offence wasn't flowing early as they played for the first time since edging the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday.
But he added that once they got the ball moving and began to push the pace, the Celtics never doubted they could come all the way back.
As the Celtics built their lead to as many as 19 points in the fourth quarter, Irving heard some chants of "M-V-P".
"That was pretty awesome over here in London, man, in the O2," said the Australian-born Irving, who opted out of a chance to play for Australia at the 2012 London Oympics in order to pursue an international career with the USA. "This is something I'll remember for the rest of my life."
β with AFP