LeBron James' Reaction to J.R. Smith's Epic Blunder Goes Viral
LeBron James was obviously frustrated over his teammate J.R. Smith's major gaffe that cost Cleveland Cavaliers the Game 1 win against Golden State Warriors for the 2018 NBA Finals, and social media made sure that he will remember it for a long time.
In the final 4.7 seconds of the regulation time during the championship game at the Oracle Arena Thursday, Smith grabbed the offensive rebound when George Hill missed a free throw after tying the game at 107.
But instead of attempting to score or passing the ball to another teammate for a chance to shoot and win the game, Smith opted to dribble the ball out as the shot clock ended. This led to an overtime where James' 51-points became useless after the Warriors won 124–114.
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Cameras captured James' frustration over Smith's slip up, where he was seen pointing out the obvious mistake in front of his teammate. This resulted in a lot of witty memes that are currently making the rounds online.
Sports news writer David Steele posted a version of the popular meme and added the caption, "We just left a rest stop! Why didn't you go then?"
Huffington Post front page editor also posted the same photo on his Twitter account but changed the caption to "This must be what parenting is like."
Even the tabloids from New York City had their own take on the viral blunder on the back page cover of their Friday issue. As seen by Fox 8 Cleveland, the New York Post featured a photo of James with his hand holding his head in frustration and came up with the headline, "Who Shot? Not J.R."
The New York Daily News also did the same approach but changed the caption to "No Shot J.R.!" But both publications described Smith as a "bonehead."
Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue tried to explain Smith's costly mistake in the interview after the game. According to Lue, the small forward thought that they already won the game because they were up by one.
But Smith clarified that he knew the score during that time. "I was trying to get enough to bring it out to get a shot off. I knew we were tied, I thought we were going to call timeout. If I thought we were ahead, I'd have held onto the ball and let them foul me," he said in front of the press.
"I knew we were tied, it's just that I thought we were going to call timeout because I got the rebound," Smith said as reported by USA Today Sports. "I'm pretty sure everyone didn't think I was going to shoot it over KD right there. If I thought we were ahead, I would've just held onto the ball and let them foul me but clearly that wasn't the case," he added.
However, while the world pokes fun at the glaring mistake, James seemed to think that it is not a laughing matter.
During the post-game interview, CBN News revealed that reporters asked him about his thoughts about Smith's faux pas. He simply said that he has no idea what his teammate was thinking during that time.
Although, ESPN's Mark Schwartz repeatedly brought up the topic about Smith. This irked James and made him grab his leather bag and walk out of the room while telling the media, "Be better tomorrow."
