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All Blacks and Highlanders first five-eighth Lima Sopoaga has sparked a ‘fan war’ between rugby and NBA fans after throwing tongue-in-cheek banter at Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard J.R. Smith.
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The NBA star posted a hypothetical scenario on Instagram, asking his followers what would they do if they found a truck full of cash with your child and the driver of the truck deceased. Smith captioned that his child would have said “Daddy get that side i got this side” to which Lima Sopoaga replied, “Daddy will all this money buy you a jump shot to help LBJ in the finals?”
The Cleveland Cavaliers have been a one-man band in the NBA playoffs with many commentators criticising the team for performing poorly providing little to no help to Lebron James. The trolling by Sopoaga has triggered a wave of angry NBA fans, unaware of who he is. The replies in some cases are too explicit to repost here.
Coming to the rescue are a number of rugby fans, willing to bat on behalf of rugby as comments going both ways reach slanderous levels. It is believed to be the first social media beef between a professional rugby player and a professional basketball player. It is not known whether Sopoaga is a fan who bandwagons Lebron or whether he is a genuinely concerned Cavs fan about Smith’s jumper.
