Crying Michael Jordan
Use Crying Jordan to express sports-related sadness, disappointment, or defeat. Also works for any situation involving loss, failure, or emotional pain (sports or otherwise).
Dimensions: 650 × 800px
Format: Cutout of Michael Jordan's crying face photoshopped onto other images, or used standalone
📖 Origin Story
Source: Michael Jordan's 2009 Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech
Creator: Screenshot from ESPN broadcast, popularized as meme by various sports communities starting in 2012
First appeared: MemeCrunch - April 23, 2012
Crying Michael Jordan became one of the most versatile and enduring sports memes, showing the basketball legend tearfully emotional during his 2009 Hall of Fame speech. The meme exploded in 2015-2016 as sports fans photoshopped Jordan's crying face onto defeated athletes, teams, and even inanimate objects. It evolved into the go-to image for sports-related sadness, disappointment, and loss. Michael Jordan himself acknowledged the meme in 2016, saying he's okay with it as long as it's not used commercially.
🎯 How to Use This Template
Use Crying Jordan to express sports-related sadness, disappointment, or defeat. Also works for any situation involving loss, failure, or emotional pain (sports or otherwise).
Pro Tips:
- 💡Most commonly used after a team/player loses
- 💡Can be photoshopped onto jerseys, faces, or objects
- 💡Works standalone with caption or as part of larger composition
- 💡The more creative the placement, the better
😂 Example Ideas
Classic sports defeat application
Financial sadness, non-sports context
Simple but effective - letting the image speak for itself
💡 Did You Know?
- •During his Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony in 2016, Obama joked about the Crying Jordan meme while awarding Jordan the medal
- •Jordan's sons Marcus and Jeffrey tweeted their delight at the meme in 2016
- •Artists created "Crying Kicks" - Air Jordan sneakers with the crying face embroidered on the tongue
- •Jordan cried again at Kobe Bryant's 2020 memorial and jokingly said Kobe would turn it into another meme
