Ah, the Crying Jordan meme—the internet’s favorite way to say, “You’re taking this loss personally, and so are we.”
It all started in 2009, when Michael Jordan, the man who made winning look easy, got a bit teary-eyed during his Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech. Enter Stephan Savoia, an Associated Press photographer with a knack for capturing iconic moments. He snapped the photo that would later become the face of every epic fail on the internet.
Savoia, who spent over three decades with the AP and was part of two Pulitzer Prize-winning teams, didn’t anticipate that this candid shot would turn into a meme sensation. But when it did, he took it in stride, finding humor in the countless variations that followed.
Not everyone was amused, though. Some, like former Chicago Bull Jay Williams, felt it was a bit much to meme-if y a legend’s vulnerable moment.
But let’s be real: the Crying Jordan meme has become a cultural staple, a universal symbol for those times when life dunks on you.