18 Months After Becoming a Social Media Meme, LeBron James’ $53,827,872 Rich Teammate Sheds Some Light on the Hilarious Moment

LeBron James is one of the most loved NBA players. He routinely makes his way into several social media photos and memes, as do the others who play with him. Around a year and a half ago, LeBron and his team-mate featured in a photo that turned into a meme and went pretty popular with the NBA crowd.

Now, eighteen months later, the NBA star who was part of the meme has spoken about what really happened and led to the photograph becoming a meme. And of course, the reason behind it is hilarious.

The story behind the viral meme

Austin Reaves came to the Los Angeles Lakers after signing a four-year, $50 million contract with them. His coming to the team was part of the brilliant strategy. And with James on his side, Reaves only became a remarkable player.

The two were caught in a pose where LeBron James points Reaves’s attention to something pretty aggressively. Reaves seems to be in a ‘teenage shrug’ pose. That pic quickly became a meme. During his recent media interaction, Reaves finally revealed what happened on that day.

In talks with Showtime Basketball, Reaves said, “We had a timeout like a minute, forty-five left. We were up, like eighteen, and you know that point, games over. I didn’t know why we were still in the game and the coach was drawing up something. And you know how timeouts are. Nobody was really listening and I asked a lot of questions that year. So, I asked the coach as I was walking down the court, I asked the court, ‘I am not doing anything. I am on the left wing. basically chilling.”

Austin Reaves continued, “And he was ‘yeah, AD Brown and Russel are planning to run some three-man action. I walk on the court and I asked Bron the same thing. Like yo, I am just chilling, right? He was like nah, you are going here, here and like, ugly and just… I don’t know if he was fu**ing with me for being serious to be honest, but, I actually make that face a lot when I am confused but at the same time, I would like to think that I am not confused a lot, so I know what’s going on. So, I was like, I don’t know.”

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Those were the inputs on the meme that surely an NBA fan has seen several times during the year. But Reaves-James court camaraderie is one of the cherished aspects of the Lakers.

The king and his court camaraderie

Reaves grew up as a big LA fan. And after joining the team in 2021, he became close to James. The King took the 25-year-old under his wing and helped him become a strategic player. The two shared a clear bonhomie. In fact, The Chosen One became cheerleader for Reaves when he signed his $53,827,872 contract.

And much of this kingsize support comes from Akron Hammer’s ability to deal with the daily criticism with positive outlook. His bubbling nature was recently discussed by Reaves in conversation with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson: “He acts like a damn kid. He [LeBron James] acts like he’s 18. I never really see him in a bad mood. Always joking, laughing, having a good time. For someone you put on a pedestal, because he’s done what he’s done, for him to just be so personable. You can talk to him about anything, you could have good conversation with him. You could joke around with him. The best thing about him is that he comes to work every day happy.”

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As the King is now heading to his 21th season, he’s counting on the court camaraderie that he cultivated over the years to raise the bar of his teammates’ ball game.