LeBron James became the sixth player in NBA history to score at least 50 points in an NBA Finals game on Thursday night.
And J.R. Smith became the first player in NBA history to grab an offense rebound under the basket with 4.5 seconds remaining and the game tied in the NBA Finals…
… only to them dribble the ball out beyond the three-point line until the final buzzer sounded and overtime could commence.
This situation really did happen in Game One between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors, as George Hill missed his second foul shot with the score knotted at 107 apiece.
Smith, incredibly, grabbed the rebound over Kedin Durant and had a chance to put the ball back in and win the game for Cleveland, propeling them to a shocking one game to zero series lead in the process.
But he elected not to do so.
Instead, he dribbled very far away from the basket and only managed to throw a pass to a teammate when it was way too late and the teammate was way out of position after he heard LeBron screaming at him about the score and the time.
It appeared as if Smith told James right afterward that he thought the Cavs were "ahead" and the game was over.
Alas, it was not.
The Warriors went on to dominate overtime and win the contest 124-114.
"It was a tie ballgame and we had a timeout," Smith told the media afterward, adding of his thinking:
"I tried to get enough space because, obviously, KD was standing right there. I tried to get enough space to bring it out to maybe get a shot off. And then I looked over at Bron, and he looked like he was trying to call a timeout.
"So I stopped. And then the game was over."
There"s no way this explanation is valid.
As you"re about to see below, Smith looked to have no intention of trying to score at all after securing the rebound, despite the seconds ticking away and an upset well within his team"s grasp.
(Thanks to LeBron putting up 51 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, that is.)
But while Cleveland fans may never forgive Smith for this blunder, the Internet is ever so thankful it took place.
Why?
Because it spawned an endless array of amazing memes based on LeBron"s reaction to Smith"s brain fart, such as the one above.
Check out the play below and then decide:
Is this the dumbest thing any professional athlete has ever done during a game of any kind?
