About

Blocked by James is a catchphrase uttered by NBA commentator Mike Breen when Lebron James blocked Andre Iguodala during game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. The catchphrase, alongside images of Lebron James' block, has since become a notable NBA meme.

Origin

The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors faced off during game seven of the 2016 NBA finals on June 19th, 2016. The match saw the Cavaliers' Lebron James block a crucial basket from the Warriors' Andre Iguodala, causing commentator Mike Breen to shout "Blocked by James!"

The official NBA YouTube^[1] account posted several angles of the block in the highlight reel posted on June 21st, 2024, gathering over 5 million views in eight years.

The extended commentary from Mike Breen is transcribed below;

Iguodala to Curry, back to Iguodala, up for the layup! Oh! Blocked by James! LeBron James with the rejection!

The block was reposted and discussed on several internet forums, as seen in a June 20th, 2016 post by /u/H4pl0 to Reddit's /r/NBA^[2] that gathered over 14,000 points in eight years.

Spread

"Blocked By James" continued to gain notoriety in NBA fan communities online, especially after Mike Breen uttered the phrase "Blocked by James" again in a May 2018 match. A SportsCenter repost of the highlight on Twitter^[3] gathered over 11,000 likes in six years.

"BLOCKED BY JAMES!"

Mike Breen voice pic.twitter.com/AMSkgfXA3Z

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 20, 2018

The following month, NBA commentator Alexis Morgan gathered over 30,000 likes on a June 6th, 2018, Twitter^[4] post joking about how the words "Blocked by James" are better than "I love you."

On November 7th, 2020, Lebron James posted a meme to Twitter^[5] after Joe Biden won the 2020 U.S. Elections, showing Biden's face edited onto Lebron and Trump's face edited onto Iguodala, as if to say Trump was "blocked by" Joe Biden. The post gathered over 900,000 likes in four years.

On September 26th, 2023, X^[6] user @YumiMain posted a joke about how he was blocked by Lebron James on Twitter (now X), gathering over 20,000 likes in a year.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References