I. Sports and Nonverbal Communication: 2018 NBA Finals Edition
End of the fourth quarter. 4.7 seconds left on the clock. Cleveland down by 1. Cavaliers guard George Hill at the free throw line. All in attendance are on their feet, rocking back and forth nervously. Three dribbles. Swish. Hill sinks the first one with a soft touch. The score is now tied. The crowd visibly deflates, but they remain standing in anticipation of the second free throw. Hill spins the ball in his hand, lifts it up, cocks it back… and misses! The crowd is screaming. Players are crashing the boards. Suddenly, the extended arm of J.R. Smith reaches through the fray and snags the rebound in a marvelous show of athleticism. Warriors fans are tense. Cavaliers fans rejoice. All Smith has to do is sink an easy basket to secure the win. Smith takes a dribble an- huh? He takes another dribble.. and another.. and another? Uh, he’s near the half-court line now… The seconds continue to tick by. Cavaliers star LeBron James waves his arms and manages to get his attention. Smith seems to awaken from a trance and turns to dish the ball to Hill at the three-point line, but it’s too late. Hill’s desperate last-second heave is blocked, and the clock hits zero. LeBron storms off the court, and Smith follows with his head hung low.
Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals was a wild ride from start to finish, and the crowd had no choice but to sit back and endure the roller coaster of energy and emotions. The Golden State Warriors would eventually go on to win 124-114, and J.R. Smith’s amateur mistake would top headlines for the next several days. The most crucial moment, however, was the time between Smith’s blunder and the start of the overtime period. Although he did his best to appear unaffected by the turn of events, Cavaliers superstar LeBron James’s use of kinesics and proxemics expressed his dissatisfaction with his teammates and the outcome of the regulation period. Here’s the breakdown:
The cameras zoomed in on superstar LeBron James as he walked towards the Cavaliers’ bench on the sideline, frustration evident on his face in everything from the rigid furrow of his brow and the set of his jaw to the swing of his arms and the force of his steps. His fast pace is indicative of his inner turmoil, for it may be construed as an adaptor gesture manifesting to satisfy his emotional needs; in other words, LeBron is literally “walking off his anger.” The direction he is walking in is also noteworthy — as you can see above, he is distancing himself from J.R. Smith, otherwise known as He-Who-Committed-the-Grave-Error. This divergence highlights the difference in status between the two men by painting LeBron as the star who did all he could for his team and Smith as the guilty party behind their current predicament. Additionally, LeBron is expressing his dissatisfaction and disappointment in his teammate by walking away from Smith and refusing to hear him out as he is trying to explain what happened. Upon reaching the bench, LeBron drops heavily into a seat, setting into motion the following series of events, forever immortalized on the Internet.
Notice LeBron James’s rigid posture and the empty seat he left between himself and J.R. Smith. His diverging actions are a sharp contrast from the rest of the team, who are either crowded around one another or slouched into seats further down the bench. LeBron also makes a point of sitting near the front (the “head”) of the bench in a show of status, for those spots are generally reserved for coaching personnel. As he sits and processes the unfortunate turn of events, he asks head coach Tyronn Lue if they had any timeouts left. A timeout could have changed the outcome, for it means that they could have stopped the game and drawn up a play that, if executed correctly, could have given them an opportunity for a game-winning shot. Expecting a no in response, LeBron is visibly taken aback when Lue informs him that yes, they indeed had a timeout that they did not use at the end of the game. This brings us to the moment pictured below.
LeBron’s arms are lifted and resting on his head, and his gaze is directed at the ground. He is seemingly unable to look at his teammates and coaches, perhaps because he feels let down upon the revelation that his coaches knowingly did not call for a timeout and, as a result, squandered a valuable opportunity to score and win the game.
LeBron then falls forward and covers his face with his hands, perhaps to hide the array of emotions coursing through his mind right now. His teammates stare at their leader as he takes a moment to continue processing his thoughts.
LeBron finally sits up, but his arms are crossed, his back is pressed to the chair, and his gaze is turned away from the rest of his team. His lower jaw juts out in a show of both defiance and acceptance, letting his teammates and coaches know that although he is unhappy with them, he realizes that they are unable to do anything but keep moving forward. Aside from LeBron shifting in his seat, there has been no conversation or movement around the Cavaliers bench for about 15 seconds now.
So why do these moments matter? What is the relevance of LeBron shutting everyone out? For starters, research by van Breukelen, van der Leeden, Wesselius, and Hoes (2012) shows that high perceived levels of differential treatment lead to “a lower‐quality working relationship between [leaders] and [players] and in a less positive evaluation of team atmosphere” (p. 57). In other words, actions that differ between different members of the team have a negative effect on team chemistry. The differential treatment, in this case, refers to LeBron’s initial shouting at J.R. Smith after his mistake and his refusal to acknowledge Smith as he tried to explain himself shortly after. By shunning Smith, LeBron made it clear that he blamed J.R. Smith for sending the game into overtime despite the fact that an argument could be made against George Hill for missing his free throw and getting blocked on his three-point attempt. LeBron’s actions opened the door for cracks to form in the team chemistry, which already stood on shaky ground after a lackluster performance throughout the game and the events of the last few seconds of regulation. Although there is no doubt that LeBron is the leader and captain of the Cavaliers, his behavior is more typical of coaches and other higher-ranked staff rather than other players. At the end of the day, both LeBron and Smith share the same title of basketball player, and LeBron’s addressing of Smith as a superior rather than an equal may have caused lasting damage to their working relationship.
Moreover, a study by Cunningham and Eys (2007) found that greater communication between team members reduces role ambiguity, leading to high satisfaction and performance among the team. In the moments after the end of regulation gameplay, team communication on the Cavaliers bench was almost nonexistent. The extended silence can be attributed to LeBron’s anger and his role as the team leader, for it means that no one is willing to stand up and cut the tension. Instead, LeBron’s teammates would rather tiptoe around the elephant in the room and give him space to process everything alone. This lack of communication left everyone unsure and unsteady regarding the roles they held on LeBron’s team. Were they blacklisted? Were they still in LeBron’s good graces? The heightened uncertainty, in turn, negatively affects performance, and that was evident in the way the rest of the overtime period played out. The Warriors would go on to win the game by 10 points, and the Cavaliers lost what might have been their only chance to secure a win on the road in the Warriors’ home arena.
All in all, LeBron James, as the unofficial leader of the team, may have played a bigger role in his team’s Game 1 loss than previously thought. While J.R. Smith is indeed the obvious person to blame for losing, LeBron’s reaction to Smith’s blunder set the tone for the remainder of the night and perhaps even the series. LeBron communicated a clear message of frustration and separation through his use of kinesics and proxemics, and his actions negatively affected team chemistry and performance before ultimately costing them the game. Commentators and fans alike have already credited this moment as the deciding factor if LeBron James decides to leave Cleveland in free agency, but only time will tell. For the moment, the Cavaliers have no choice but to pick themselves up and dust themselves off. There is no time to wait — on to the next one.
Cunningham, I. J. and Eys, M. A. (2007), Role Ambiguity and Intra‐Team Communication in Interdependent Sport Teams. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37: 2220-2237. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2007.00256.x
van Breukelen, W. , van der Leeden, R. , Wesselius, W. and Hoes, M. (2012), Differential treatment within sports teams, leader–member (coach–player) exchange quality, team atmosphere, and team performance. J. Organiz. Behav., 33: 43-63. doi:10.1002/job.735
