Michael Jordan

About

Michael Jordan is a former NBA Basketball player best known for being a dominant player on the Chicago Bulls in the 1980s and 1990s. With the team, he won six NBA Championships and became a global icon. He won the NBA MVP award five times and earned numerous other accolades during his playing career, and is widely regarded to be one of, if not the best player ever. Online, his post-playing career has inspired numerous memes, most notably Crying Jordan and a slew of memes from the ESPN documentary about the 1997-1998 Chicago Bulls, The Last Dance.

History

Michael Jordan was born on February 17th, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York.^[1] After moving to North Carolina at an early age, he played college basketball at the University of North Carolina from 1982-1984 and entered the NBA draft after his junior season. He was drafted with the third overall pick by the Chicago Bulls in the 1984 NBA draft.^[2] After establishing himself as an individual presence in the 80s, he was able to win his first championship with the Chicago Bulls in 1991. The team won three championships in a row. Jordan abruptly retired after the 1992-1993 season to pursue a career in professional baseball.^[3] In March of 1995, he returned to the Bulls to help the team in the final push of the season. He and the Bulls won championships the following three seasons, bringing Jordan's career championship total to six.^[4] Jordan again retired in 1999 and began working as an executive for the Washington Wizards in 2001. He then came out of retirement and played for the Wizards for two seasons from 2001-2003 before retiring for good.^[5]

Space Jam

Space Jam is a 1996 children’s live-action / animated comedy film starring the legendary retired NBA athlete Michael Jordan and iconic characters from the classic cartoon series Looney Tunes. The film follows The Looney Toons convincing Jordan to help them win a basketball game against the villainous Monstars. Jordan is struggling in minor league baseball at the time, but through the Looney Toons, rediscovers his love of basketball and returns to the NBA.

Related Memes

Stop It, Get Some Help

Stop It, Get Some Help is a quote said by former professional basketball player Michael Jordan in an anti-drug public service announcement (PSA) that originally aired in May 1987. On Vine and YouTube, Jordan's PSA has been widely used as a reaction video to poke fun at cringeworthy media or express disapproval of behaviors and comments by others.

Sponsored by McDonald's and starring Michael Jordan, the anti-drug public service announcement premiered on ABC at the end of the network's anti-drug TV special program Cracked Up that originally aired on May 26th, 1987. In the minute-long video, Jordan urges teenagers to stay away from doing drugs, while pleading those with substance abuse problems to "stop it" and "get some help." The earliest digital copy of the original video was uploaded by YouTuber EightiesTV on February 4th, 2010.

Jordan: Listen, you got at least three-fourths of your life to go. That's three more lifetimes to you. So don't blow it. Don't do drugs. If you're doing it, stop it. Get some help.

Crying Jordan

Crying Michael Jordan is a photoshop meme based on a cutout image of former professional basketball player Michael Jordan crying during his 2009 Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech. Online, the image of the tearful Jordan has been frequently used by sports fans to convey sadness in reaction to the defeat of their favorite teams.

On September 11th, 2009, Jordan gave a speech during his Basketball Hall of Fame induction in Springfield, Massachusetts. Throughout the speech, Jordan repeatedly cried while retelling various anecdotes about his career (shown below).

The Last Dance

The Last Dance is an American sports documentary television series about the professional basketball team the Chicago Bulls and their 1997-98 season. The 10-part series focuses primarily on former player Michael Jordan and his career with the Bulls. The series was directed by Jason Hehir and produced by Mike Tollin. The series spawned multiple memes featuring Michael Jordan quotes and moments.

And I Took That Personally…

And I Took That Personally refers to a reaction image of basketball legend Michael Jordan saying "And I took that personally" while on the set of The Last Dance. The image has been used with captions describing a small slight against another party.

In The Last Dance, the ESPN documentary covering the 1997-1998 Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan describes several moments from that season which he took personally and used as motivation for strong performances in games. On June 8th, 2020, YouTuber DoubleDuck posted a compilation of things Jordan admitted to taking or appeared to take personally from the documentary, gaining over 3.3 million views (shown below).

The moment of Jordan saying "So I took that personally" shown in the reaction image never actually happens in the documentary. On May 17th, 2020, Twitter user @OGMelo_ posted a Nobody joke about how Jordan claims to have taken many things personally in the documentary, gaining over 16,000 retweets and 78,000 likes (shown below).

Jamming Out

Michael Jordan Jamming Out is a video remix series featuring a clip from the 2020 sports documentary series The Last Dance of its subject, Michael Jordan, listening to headphones. Online, some have replaced the clip's soundtrack with other music for a humorous effect.

On May 17th, 2020, ESPN aired the 10th episode of the documentary series The Last Dance. In the episode, Jordan walks on to his team's bus listening to headphones. After nodding his head and dancing to himself, another player asks what he's listening to. He responds, "Kenny Lattimore."

That day, some posted the clip on Twitter. For example, Twitter user @adelleplaton shared the clip with the caption "jordan with that kenny lattimore exclusive." The post received more than 129,000 views, 2,900 likes and 780 retweets in less than one week (shown below).

jordan with that kenny lattimore exclusive pic.twitter.com/L1szEfU3iN

— adelle 🏁 (@adelleplaton) May 18, 2020

Laughing

Michael Jordan Laughing refers to a reaction image from The Last Dance of Michael Jordan laughing while looking at a tablet. After the episode of the docuseries aired, the image was quickly used in tweets with captions meant to be humorously unlikely.

On the May 10th, 2020 episode of The Last Dance, former NBA player Gary Payton said his team the Seattle SuperSonics could have won the 1996 NBA Finals if he was guarding Jordan, citing how he guarded him effectively when he was put on him in Game 4. This prompted Jordan to rear back his head in laughter (clip shown below).

Looking At iPad

Michael Jordan Looking At iPad, also known as Surprised Michael Jordan, is a reaction image macro series featuring a screenshot from the American sports documentary series The Last Dance of former professional basketball player Michael Jordan reacting to comments made by fellow former player Isaiah Thomas.

On April 26th, 2020, Last Dance director Jason Hehir posted the image of Jordan looking at the iPad with the caption "Tonight" on Twitter. The tweet received more than 18,000 likes and 2,100 retweets in less than two days (shown below).

On April 26th, 2020, during an episode of The Last Dance, Jordan watched a video of Thomas on an iPad and smirked when as he watched the clip. That night, Twitter account @Hustle_NBA shared the clip, receiving more than 18,000 views, 320 likes and 110 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Michael Jordan on Isiah Thomas and the Bad Boy Pistons#lastdance pic.twitter.com/hU1xc46v9c

— NBA Hustle (@Hustle_NBA) April 27, 2020

Personal Life

Jordan had two sons, Jeffrey and Marcus, with Juanita Vanoy, who he married and divorced twice.^[6] He married Yvette Prieto in 2013.^[7]

Jordan struggled with gambling issues throughout his playing career, particularly through his first run in the NBA. This led to rumors that Jordan's abrupt 1993 retirement was actually a secret suspension from the NBA, though this has been denied and investigations into the rumor have turned up nothing.^[8]

Search Interest

External References