LeBron James Joked He’d Have Taken A Sip If He’d Grabbed A Glass Of Wine Not Beer

The Cleveland Cavaliers showed no signs of rust after their layoff between Round 1 and Round 2 of the NBA Playoffs, as they cruised past the Raptors in Game 1 of their second round series 116-105 on Monday night. It was clear during the game that the Cavs and their star LeBron James were in the mood to have some fun as they picked apart the Raptors.

James and Kyrie Irving connected in the first quarter on a ridiculous off the backboard alley-oop and later in the game, James decided to joke around and grabbed a beer bottle from one of the waitresses courtside. This elicited a hearty laugh from J.R. Smith who was alongside James, and after the game, James joked about what happened.

“I’m not going to run over our beer lady,” James said. “And she had one, so I took it out of her hand. Not much of a beer guy. If she’d had some red wine I probably definitely would’ve took a sip.”

It’s a funny, harmless moment and one James can have fun with after the game, but as J.R. Smith noted in his post-game interview, he thinks the reaction would’ve been much different had the roles been reversed and he was the one snagging a beer during the game.

“I thought it was hilarious, until I thought about if I did it,” Smith said. “It wouldn’t have been taken the right way. It was funny.”

This is entirely true. It was funny, and if Smith had done it, the conversation would’ve been much more split with some (like myself) still finding it funny and others calling it problematic. However, since it was LeBron, he gets a little more benefit of the doubt than J.R. so I think the majority of the response has been that it was funny and nothing more.