jr smith-cleveland cavaliers

J.R. Smith spoke to the media Saturday for the first time since the revelation that he had thrown soup at assistant coach Damon Jones, and the Cavaliers guard managed to sound sad, annoyed and amused all at once.

Wearing a hat featuring Arthur’s clenched fist (naturally), Smith generally declined to discuss the incident, saying he had moved on after serving a one-game suspension. But he did acknowledge the flood of jokes and memes that spread across social media Friday, saying “some of them were actually pretty funny,” even while lamenting that “everything that I do is going to have a meme or whatever.”

Asked what kind of soup he threw, Smith said, “honestly I don’t even remember.” (The Athletic’s Jason Llloyd says it was chicken tortilla.)

Here’s a clip of his remarks, via ESPN.

So Smith wasn’t exactly jovial in discussing his suspension, but to his credit he didn’t snap or roll his eyes as he fielded somewhat probing questions. Overall, his performance in front of reporters Saturday was about as cheerful as you could expect from someone who had spent the previous 24 hours being mocked across the internet.

Indeed, the colorful world of NBA social media got its jokes off Friday, creating everything from “Billy Madison” parodies…

To “Napoleon Dynamite” parodies…

To, of course, Seinfeld parodies.

For a solid day, J.R. was pretty much the laughingstock of the league, which can’t be too easy to endure. Even if he did, you know, throw soup at a dude.

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.