It’s been over four years since a clip of LeBron James giving instructions to a visibly befuddled Austin Reaves went viral online. On Monday, James and Steve Nash’s “Mind The Game” podcast shared a clip of James and Reaves explaining the story behind the interaction.
The original context of the clip is straightforward: The Los Angeles Lakers were leading the Brooklyn Nets by 15 with just over two minutes remaining in a January 2022 game in Brooklyn. And according to Reaves and Nash, the scoreline is all you need to know about why Reaves looked so confused.
“Why was Bron even in the game right now? It’s over,” Reaves recalled on the podcast.
Nash said: “We know what he’s thinking now. He just told us. He’s going ‘Why the f— is he in the game talking about this s— right now, what are we doing? Sit your ass down, we got the job done, and you’re still coaching.'”
James offered a theory for why he was still playing even with the win all but secured.
“I must have needed one rebound and one assist,” he said. “That had to be it.”
“Why is Bron even in the game right now?”
Austin Reaves and @KingJames explain what exactly went down in Brooklyn. Tap into AR’s episode TOMORROW. pic.twitter.com/PH3RjVhfaD
— Mind the Game (@mindthegamepod) March 23, 2026
After the game in 2022, Reaves explained that the confusion had stemmed from getting an explanation for a play that had been called.
“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 weakside 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,” Reaves said. “So when he told me I was in, I was lost.”
Reaves also shared in the “Mind The Game” clip that James sharing the meme provided quite the boon for his following on social media in the ensuing days.
“I remember he posted that after the game, my followers went from like 60,000 to 7 million,” Reaves said. “It was a ‘bing, bing, bing.’ We were in Philly, I was out to eat with Reg and I picked up my phone and I just set it back down, I was like ‘I don’t even know what’s going on.'”
The clip has only grown in popularity over the years — this isn’t the first time Reaves has talked about its origins — and the Lakers posted a swapped version of the meme earlier this year that went viral as well.
Reaves is currently enjoying the best season of his career for the Lakers, averaging 23.5 points and 5.5 assists per game for the team as Los Angeles jockeys for Western Conference seeding position. The 41-year-old James has remained his usual productive self, averaging 21.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 6.8 assists.
