Jae Crowder and LeBron James do not like each other in the slightest, as they have long found themselves going up against each other in the playoffs, from Crowder’s time in Boston, Miami, and now Phoenix. Crowder is often tasked with guarding James, which often goes about as well as anyone else guarding LeBron in the playoffs, but he takes his role as LeBron Irritant very seriously.
Sometimes this goes poorly for Crowder and his teams, as his antics push James to try and dominate him which he is often capable of doing. We saw that come to life in Game 3, as James laughed as he posted and toasted Crowder as the Lakers bench looked on in glee, mocking Crowder.
But on occasion, Crowder will win a battle here and there and it delights him like nothing else. On Thursday night, Crowder finally won a war with James, as the Suns took down the Lakers in Game 6 to send the defending champs packing. As the clock ticked towards zero and the Suns were ahead by 15, Crowder unleashed his final act, trolling James and the Lakers by salsa dancing in the paint — making fun of LeBron’s recent commercial where he’s a salsa instructor — which earned him his second technical of the night and got him ejected.
Jae Crowder taunts LeBron by Salsa dancing 😳 pic.twitter.com/FGAIxKHwq1
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 4, 2021
Crowder was happy to accept his ejection, sprinting off the court in glee as he had finally had a team best James and got to revel in it in the only way a professional instigator can. It also helped that Crowder had his best night of the series on the court in the closeout situation, as he piled in six three-pointers for 18 points, serving as the second-highest scorer on the Suns behind Devin Booker’s outrageous 47-point effort.
