The 10 best sports memes of the decade

Thanks for all of that, internet.

If there’s one aspect of sports that decidedly changed this past decade, it has to be how fans consumed, followed and reacted to sports. This was the first full decade with sports intersecting with mainstream social-media use, and with that, seemingly every major sports moment produced a fresh batch of memes and jokes, adding an extra level of entertainment for us to enjoy.

While a decade is an eternity in internet years, a handful of memes have managed to persevere beyond the in-the-moment joke on Twitter, Instagram and other platforms.

These are the 10 memes we’ll remember from the past decade.

The Curry 2 Low “Chef”

Under Armour has long struggled to produce a commercially successful sneaker for Steph Curry, but the 2016 release of the Curry 2 Low sneaker served as a low point for the brand’s basketball operations. There was no coming back from these memes.

Nick Young

Nick Young has spent much of his career as the league’s most confident middle-of-the-rotation player. And honestly, his NBA career will probably be remembered for the memes. All of them.

The Astros’ dugout when a changeup is coming

The Astros have been entangled in a cheating scandal this offseason after former Houston pitcher Mike Fiers blew the whistle on a sign-stealing operation. Those cheating tactics included someone banging on a trashcan to relay an off-speed pitch to the hitter. Well, MLB Twitter turned that entire story into an exceptional meme.

Tom Brady’s enormous coat

This meme makes a reappearance whenever Tom Brady dons a coat on the sideline.

Angry Michael Phelps face

Michael Phelps was getting his game face on ahead of his 200 meter butterfly semifinals at the 2016 Olympics. His game face, though, just happened to be terrifying.

McKayla Maroney, not impressed

Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast McKayla Maroney made the signature expression after earning a silver medal in the 2012 vault final. You know a meme is epic when this happens …

Lance Stephenson blowing air in LeBron’s ear

You have to go all the way back to 2014 for this meme, but Lance Stephenson’s NBA career can be defined by this singular moment.

The meme went on to have an impressive run that crossed into other sports.

LeBron yells at J.R. Smith

Back when the Golden State Warriors were good, the Cleveland Cavaliers had a shot at stealing Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals on the road. George Hill missed a chance at the go-ahead free throw, and when J.R. Smith grabbed the rebound, he dribbled the ball to the perimeter rather than attempt a put-back layup. Smith forgot the score, and LeBron’s look of disbelief became a meme.

Kevin Durant: My Next Chapter

When Kevin Durant made his league-changing announcement that he was signing with the Golden State Warriors in 2016, he did so with an essay in The Players’ Tribune. That essay included a featured image of Durant wearing a plane white shirt. It was basically asking to become a meme, and it did! The meme followed Durant for his entire run with Golden State and almost certainly had something to do with his painfully boring Nets announcement this past offseason.

Crying Jordan

It wasn’t the funniest meme, but the Crying Jordan was undeniably the most prevalent sports meme of the decade. Though the photo was taken from Jordan’s Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2009, the meme started becoming a thing on the internet around 2014.

And it wouldn’t go away.

You have to respect that longevity.

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