Watch: A visibly confused Austin Reaves autographs rice cooker for a fan

Austin Reaves may have just secured the 2022 NBA championship for the Los Angeles Lakers.

I know, I know. It’s not even June yet, when we were expecting to see that sentence as Reaves got his first playoff start in a blowout win during Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Nevertheless, Reaves is setting the building blocks for that type of moment right now, at a recent fan event, where the undrafted rookie overcame his confusion and signed a rice cooker for an autograph-seeking fan.

“I appreciate it,” Reaves said with a befuddled laugh in video of the exchange as the fan explained how he wanted to show the appliance off at family gatherings. “Does it matter where?”

Reaves finding a spot to eventually sign an almost all-metal rice cooker with a ballpoint pen is just another example of his excellent situational awareness for such a young player.

Now, why does this mean that he just secured a championship for Los Angeles? Well, as longtime readers are well aware, we here at Silver Screen and Roll are big fans of analytics, and the numbers don’t lie on this one.

You see, back in March of 2017, equally confused Golden State Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson was captured in similar photos, signing a toaster for an equally excited fan.

The Warriors, as NBA fans will remember, went on to win their first of two championships in a row a few months later.

So there are two possibilities here:

1. Austin Reaves is a fan of basketball method acting, slowly turning himself into Klay Thompson in order to get better as a 3-point shooter

or

2. LeBron James realized the real reason he lost in those finals was not Kevin Durant flanking Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Thompson. It was the NBA voodoo magic that comes from an affable, fan-favorite shooting guard signing household appliances.

Either way, the Lakers just secured the 2022 title. Better luck next year, NBA.

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