THE world has lost its mind over a “disgraceful” moment that put NBA star JR Smith to shame and made him a global laughing stock.
FOR once it wasn’t LeBron James stealing all the headlines for Cleveland.
Instead, it was teammate JR Smith who sparked a meltdown after the Cavs star’s unforgivable brain explosion in the final seconds of Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Smith butchered a golden chance to give Cleveland an unexpected 1-0 lead over the Golden State Warriors in the best-of-seven series all because he — inexplicably — didn’t know the score.
Read: Apocalyptic brain snap stuns NBA
The lead changed several times in a nerve-racking final minute and Cleveland was in the box seat to claim the win when, down by one point, George Hill was gifted two free throws after he was fouled off the ball by Klay Thompson just outside the paint.
Hill sunk his first one-pointer to level the scores at 107-all but his next effort bounced off the rim.
With a handful of seconds left, Smith grabbed the offensive rebound but instead of driving to the hoop for a last-gasp bucket, he headed in the opposite direction.
It looked like Smith mistakenly believed Cleveland had the lead and thought he only needed to keep possession to win. He could not have been more wrong.
“He thought it was over. He thought we were up one,” Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue said in his post-match press conference.
Smith’s teammates yelled and pointed at him to turn around but by the time he knew what was going on, it was too late. The buzzer went and the match was headed to overtime. James couldn’t believe his teammate’s unforgivable sin, putting his hands on his head and remonstrating with him.
From there, Golden State ran away with the game to claim a 124-114 win in overtime.
CHECK OUT THE INCIDENT IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ABOVE
FOR once it wasn’t LeBron James stealing all the headlines for Cleveland.
Instead, it was teammate JR Smith who sparked a meltdown after the Cavs star’s unforgivable brain explosion in the final seconds of Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Smith butchered a golden chance to give Cleveland an unexpected 1-0 lead over the Golden State Warriors in the best-of-seven series all because he — inexplicably — didn’t know the score.
Read: Apocalyptic brain snap stuns NBA
The lead changed several times in a nerve-racking final minute and Cleveland was in the box seat to claim the win when, down by one point, George Hill was gifted two free throws after he was fouled off the ball by Klay Thompson just outside the paint.
Hill sunk his first one-pointer to level the scores at 107-all but his next effort bounced off the rim.
With a handful of seconds left, Smith grabbed the offensive rebound but instead of driving to the hoop for a last-gasp bucket, he headed in the opposite direction.
It looked like Smith mistakenly believed Cleveland had the lead and thought he only needed to keep possession to win. He could not have been more wrong.
“He thought it was over. He thought we were up one,” Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue said in his post-match press conference.
Smith’s teammates yelled and pointed at him to turn around but by the time he knew what was going on, it was too late. The buzzer went and the match was headed to overtime. James couldn’t believe his teammate’s unforgivable sin, putting his hands on his head and remonstrating with him.
From there, Golden State ran away with the game to claim a 124-114 win in overtime.
CHECK OUT THE INCIDENT IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ABOVE
