In the fourth quarter of L.A.'s Tuesday evening win at Brooklyn, Austin Reaves walked out of a time out next to LeBron James, confirming the play that Frank Vogel had called during the prior time out.
When LeBron told Reaves something different from what he thought he heard in the time out, a rather befuddled expression came across the undrafted rookie's face, one that turned quickly into a meme after LeBron posted a screen shot on his Instagram account.
“Coach had drew up an ATO and I asked (LeBron) a question I kind of knew the answer to when I was going out, but just to get validation, and then, basically it was just a big miscommunication and I thought I was supposed to be chilling on the weak side as they ran an action on the other side with him, AD and Russ, and he thought that I was in it, and I thought I wasn’t in it. So when he told me I was in, I was lost.”
Thus the expression!
In short, Reaves initially thought that he wasn't involved in the play ... only for LeBron to tell him that he was. So, after that look of confusion, he just ... listened to LeBron.
"I just did what he said after that," Reaves explained prior to L.A.'s Friday evening game at Charlotte. "He told me to come down, hit AD chasing, so that’s what I did. 'Bron told me he was going to dribble handoff on me, I was going to hit AD and then chase it over the top, which it didn’t make any sense to me because there was someone already on strong side corner. So I think the whole play was kind of messed up ... but I think we ended up getting a good shot out of it.”
By "hit" AD, Reaves meant to pass the ball to him, and then continue his own movement to the other side of the court to clear space for LeBron and AD to run screen/roll action in the middle of the floor.
"I was so caught off guard of what was going, I guess I made an expression and I didn’t even know I made it at the time,” Reaves said.
He and LeBron haven't spoken about the meme in person - it's no mystery - but Reaves, who's exceeded nearly everybody's expectations this season with impressive, heady all-around play, got a kick out of the post.
"I was actually at dinner with one of my agents and my phone just started going crazy and his actually started going crazy too and we were both like, “Uh oh, what happened?” he said. "I picked it up and I saw it (LeBron's post). It was actually hilarious.
"First time I’ve gone viral over something like that," Reaves concluded. "So it was just a situation to laugh about and have fun with. I think the reason me and LeBron didn’t talk about it was because we were just having a conversation. I didn’t even know I made the expression.”