About

Mom Made Pizza Rolls is an image macro meme featuring then-Oklahoma City Thunder players Kevin Durant and James Harden. The meme shows the two basketball players celebrating after scoring during a match against the Mavericks in Game 2 of the 2011 Western Conference Finals. While several attempts have been made to trace the creator of the meme, the exact origin of the meme is unknown. The image has been recreated and referenced several times in OKC Thunder history since 2011.

Origin

On May 19th, 2011, Oklahoma City Thunder played against the Mavericks in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, winning with a score of 106 to 100. Photographer^[1] Mike Stone captured Kevin Durant and James Harden's reaction after scoring a basket during the match, showing Kevin Durant leaning forward and clenching his fists and James Harden staring up and sticking his tongue out (seen below).

A version of the image with the text "Mom Made Pizza Rolls" began to make the rounds in 2012, with TinEye saving cached a version of the meme on DudeLol from September 2012.^[2] In 2021, The Oklahoman interviewed SportsNation's social media manager to find out if the image originated on Facebook and concluded that it may have sprung from NBA Reddit.

Spread

On May 23rd, 2021, @lit.nbamemes^[3] posted a version of the meme featuring Russell Westbrook, gathering over 12,000 likes in two years (seen below, left). X^[4] user @Joe_Martin13 posted a picture of Harden playing for the Brooklyn Nets in 2021 saying, "Mom made pizza rolls: The sequel." The post gathered over 37,000 likes in two years (seen below, right).

On July 8th, 2022, the Facebook^[5] page NBA Buzz posted a "2022 version" of the Mom Made Pizza Rolls meme, gathering over 3,000 likes in a year (seen below).

On December 8th, 2023, several NBA accounts posted about Oklahoma Thunder's point bucket win against the Golden State Warriors using the "Mom Made Pizza Rolls" meme, as seen in a post by @ThunderFilmRoom^[6] that gathered over 13,000 likes in a day (seen below).

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References