Everyone in the sports community online knows about Crying Jordan, a meme whose influence has spread across the Internet like wildfire ever since it first began to circulate. You probably know that already, but I’m sure you’re wondering where it came from and how it became popular online. Luckily for you, that’s what I’m here for! Fasten your seatbelt and get ready to know everything you need about this iconic piece of internet culture.
The Origin
The iconic picture, which features legendary basketball player Michael Jordan with teams streaming down his face, originates from a speech in 2009 where he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame after carving out a legendary career mostly playing with the Chicago Bulls. A picture was taken of his face with tears streaming down from his eyes as he started crying.
Though the speech occurred in 2009, memes stemming from it only began to appear in 2012, as Know Your Meme states. After Jordan bought the Charlotte Bobcats basketball franchise and they often lost their games, a user on the website memecrunch.com created this meme:
I can’t lie, it’s pretty accurate; the Bobcats, now known as the Hornets, have been pretty terrible almost every season they’ve been in the NBA. That includes the years since this meme was made. I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me that it was from 2021…
Ever since then, Jordan’s crying face has been regularly circulated on social media, whether it is used with a hilarious caption or edited onto someone else. In general, Jordan’s face is put onto people who have just lost a sports event. This can mean a sports player, fan, a coach, or anyone else involved in the loss.
Take this as an example: quarterback Tom Brady was pretty sad when his New England Patriots of the NFL lost in the 2018 Super Bowl, and people had no mercy:
Considering the whole “Deflategate” scandal in 2015, where the Patriots deflated the balls in the Super Bowl to give themselves a better chance to win, this was probably deserved. As a Cleveland Browns fan myself, I enjoyed the memes, but I can’t really trash talk anyone since my team has been terrible until the past couple of years.
Gaining Popularity
The meme reached the height of its popularity in 2016 after Jordan’s sons, Marcus and Jeffrey, Tweeted about it in late January. This inspired many Twitter users to create their own versions of it.
Throughout that year, there were many well-known sports events that inspired edits with the senior Jordan’s face on it, including on North Carolina’s college basketball team (Jordan’s alma mater) after they were beaten by Villanova in the final of college basketball’s March Madness playoff tournament:
This meme is made so much better by the fact that Jordan himself is in the picture. It’s one of my favourite versions and I remember seeing it right after North Carolina lost the game.
As for why this meme in particular has become so popular, there have been some theories created by people online. One theory is that it puts one of the most respected and revered athletes of all time into a vulnerable position, making him less of an “alpha male”.
Personally, I think that his tears were pretty justified. If I come close to crying when I stub my toe, I think an all-time basketball legend can shed a few tears when being presented with such a huge honour!
In any case, it’s clear that Jordan’s face has had a significant cultural impact, even if no one knows exactly how or why it happened. It is one of the few sports memes that has remained popular online for years on end.
The face is even used on memes that are completely unrelated to sports, and I know a lot of us can relate to this one:
Circulation
The Crying Jordan meme is most popular on Twitter, but it can also frequently be seen on apps such as Instagram and Facebook, with an occasional appearance on TikTok.
It originally spread from sports fans on sites like memecrunch.com, but it grew to take over the sports communities on bigger platforms like the ones I mentioned. Also, MemeCrunch doesn’t exist anymore.
In fact, the meme is so popular on mainstream social media now that Instagram and Twitter accounts are dedicated to posting different versions of it. Some of the posts even delve into the political world, making fun of people such as Kim Jong Un:
With the use of that meme, I don’t think I’ll be traveling near North Korea any time soon. Whoops! Hope they don’t read this.
Here’s a collection of a few Tweets from this year related to Crying Jordan that you can scroll through to get an idea of how they’re used across different communities. In addition to its sports usage, the meme has shown up with a lot of relatable captions for all of us:
Conclusion
Crying Jordan is definitely THE sports meme of the 2010s, and it can be argued that it is simply the meme of the decade in general. It has lasted since it began to become popular in 2012. It is still regularly used and well-known today. It takes over sports on the internet to represent the loser of important games.
As a huge sports fan, I can confirm that no other meme surpasses this one as the largest and most influential. I’ve seen it everywhere throughout its existence online and there’s no sign of it dying off.
If you knew nothing about the sports community before, this has given you information about an important aspect of it. Now that you know how to use Crying Jordan, you are on the way to becoming one of us. Welcome! I hope you enjoy your time here.
We’re pretty nice… most of the time. Don’t try to talk to us after our team loses. Also, don’t create one of these memes. Oh no, now you’re going to, aren’t you?
Hope you enjoyed this post! Don’t forget to follow the blog and my Twitter (@strydee_). I figured I might as well take a stab at making a class-themed Crying Jordan meme of my own, so here it is (I’m joking, of course! Or am I?):
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