LeBron James' upset and confused face was plastered all over social media after Game 1 of NBA finals Thursday between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers.
With five seconds left to the game and a tied score, Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith failed to pass the ball to LeBron, and even didn't attempt to make a shot for the basket, causing the game to run into overtime, with the Cavs eventually losing to the Warriors 124-114.
TV cameras caught him mouthing "I thought we were ahead" to a visibly upset LeBron.
LeBron was quite unhappy with Smith's play, to say the least. His reaction to Smith's blunder created a meme where LeBron represents the emotion of anger, confusion and disappointment.
"He thought it was over," Cavs coach Ty Lue said of Smith's actions in the post game conference. "He thought we were up one."
One of the memes compared LeBron to Patrick Star from "Spongebob Squarepants," who made a similar hands pointing gesture in perturbation.[[484294741, C]]
Smith defended his play after Game 1 saying: "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."
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This isn't the first time basketball players have become a widely used meme.
A photo of Michael Jordan crying in 2009 has been used over and over again in a variety of internet memes.
The Warriors' Nick Young has also been a subject of a widely used meme where he appears confused with question marks around his face.[[484192771, C]]
