Richard Jefferson plays 'Good Cop' in 2016 champagne incident featuring JR Smith and fan - "I was merely apologizing"

In 2016, Richard Jefferson helped the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers to the franchise's first-ever championship. JR Smith was a big part of the Cavaliers team and played a significant role in their success.

However, shortly after winning a championship ring, Smith found himself in hot water. A video emerged on social media of the Cavaliers guard celebrating his team's win by pouring champagne over a female fan at a nightclub.

Richard Jefferson recently re-lived that moment by reposting the video on X, sharing a note about how he was "playing good cop" by speaking to the fan after she had been drenched in champagne.

"I was merely apologizing for the behavior of my teammate. Good cop bad Cop," Jefferson wrote on X.

The Cavaliers had every right to celebrate their championship win. The team had just made history by coming back from 3-1 down against the Golden State Warriors, and LeBron James had made good on his promise to bring a championship to Cleveland.

However, there was no need to soak a fan in the nightclub, even if she did get her own back by firing champagne back at Smith.

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LeBron James got bored in Cleveland shortly after Richard Jefferson left

Richard Jefferson remained with the Cleveland Cavaliers for one more season after winning the championship alongside LeBron James. The veteran forward then moved to the Denver Nuggets for the final season of his career in 2017.

The 2017-18 season was also James' last with the Cavaliers, as he had reportedly grown "bored" and was looking for the next chapter in his career. On a recent episode of "Gil's Arena," Rich Paul discussed what went into LeBron's decision-making process ahead of joining the Los Angeles Lakers.

"If anybody knows him, he gets bored, fast. So, my conversation was looking at the talent. At the time, Jesse had done a great job in the draft. They had (Kyle) Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart; the talent was young but was there. If you're gonna leave Cleveland, where you going?"

Paul continued:

"It's just a matter of who climbs the mountain top to come back down and climb the mountain again? Obviously, if you go here and win, you've been to three destinations, and you've won in each different place.

"No matter how many times you've moved, you've been to three different places and you've won. It's a different conversation."

Richard Jefferson's time with the Cavaliers led to his only career championship. However, James won his fourth championship during his second season with the Lakers, in 2020.

Since then, James and the Lakers have struggled to recapture that level of success but will hope that Rob Pelinka's busy summer will give them a chance at another banner next season.