The 53 Funniest ‘The Last Dance’ Memes

Evan Romano
·12 min read

From Men's Health

With sports all-but-completely-cancelled in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's been a rough run for the usual ESPN faithful—with one bright spot. For 5 weeks (and a total of 10 hours), sports fans rallied around ESPN's documentary series The Last Dance, which focuses on Michael Jordan, his Chicago Bulls teammates, and their 1997-1998 quest for a sixth championship (spoiler: they won). The docuseries, which features exclusive all-access footage of that season, along with countless new interviews from the people involved, is just as funny as it is dramatic—which makes for quite a lot of content for the internet to make memes with.

As you might recall, Michael Jordan's crying face has been an internet meme ever since, well, he cried at his Basketball Hall of Fame induction in 2009. Now, with MJ on TV for two hours a week, internet meme content was created at an all-time pace (the NBA G.O.A.T. might hold that same distinction for memes). In particular, moments where Jordan reacts to his peers via tablet playback—Dennis Rodman talking about a trip to Vegas, Isiah Thomas talking about his 1992 Dream Team snub, and Gary Payton saying that he thought he got under Michael Jordan's skin defensively during the 1996 finals—have made for excellent fodder.

In the last couple episodes, people have begun to really notice a pattern: MJ creating motivation for himself at any cost. Did you say something to him? He's coming for you. Did you not say anything to him? He's coming for you. The man is a walking Catch-22 of basketball vengeance, and it's just spectacular.

Below, take a look at some of the funniest memes to come out of ESPN's The Last Dance. Hopefully you laugh as much at these as Michael Jordan did at the thought of Gary Payton slowing him down.

Perhaps the biggest revelation to come from the final two hours of The Last Dance was the epiphany that Jordan's legendary "Flu Game"—when he scored 38 points in game 5 of the 1997 finals while visibly ill—was actually not the flu at all. Rather, he and his trainer Tim Grover believed that he was sick from food poisoning, after a pizza was delivered by five guys (?), and MJ was the only one to eat it (and apparently ate all of it).

This revelation was a big one for the memes.

Not everyone's believing this pizza story, though.

And, well, whether it was food poisoning or the flu, MJ came out on top—as usual.

There was also a 1998 Leonardo DiCaprio locker room appearance.

Obviously the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood meme was rampant.

MJ's competitive streak was once again front and center. In fact, some could compare his shit-talking to everyday chatter that we all can see ourselves having.

And, we know this man is always finding a way to get motivated.

The documentary also got into the backstory of former Jordan-teammate and current Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr; we saw him hit huge shots, and we saw him give fun/joking speeches in the aftermath of the Bulls' sixth title. We also saw him rock a mean Dad BBQ outfit.

One new sensation? A cheering Pacers fan being known only as "Pacers Karen"

Additionally, the final episode, again, honed in on Dennis Rodman. While The Worm was still a monster on the boards, the episode saw him briefly go AWOL in the midst of a pivotal Finals series; it turns out he was teaming up with Hulk Hogan to make an appearance on the nWo wrestling show.

He was doing OK after the Bulls won the title, though.

As always, MJ's style remains unparalleled. Jim Carrey and Lil Dicky would both approve of this choice.

Many have begun noticing the pattern of MJ's self motivation. Seems like there's no real way around, to be honest.

Not to play Freud, but...

Seriously. There was no way around this man's basketball wrath.

Gary Payton really thought he "took a toll" on Michael. Michael did not agree. "The Glove," he said after laughing quite a bit. "I had no problem with the glove. I had no problem with Gary Payton. I had a lot of other things on my mind." That last line, particularly, is incredible, directly after hearing how impassioned Payton sounded just a moment before. You cannot write comedy like this.

A lot of fun was had with this moment.

Even other sports got in on it.

The latest episode also touched on Jordan's offseason workout before his first full season back (after his brief run playing baseball): filming Space Jam.

Space Jam wasn't the only movie that got brought into this. ESPN's official SportsCenter account saw a late episode appearance by Reggie Miller (who said he wanted to be the one to take MJ down) and connected it to a movie about another gambler: Uncut Gems.

We even got a Major League shout out!

In an earlier episode, Jordan watched footage of Detroit Pistons legend Isiah Thomas talking about his own exclusion from the 1992 Olympics "Dream Team." Thomas is believed to have been excluded from this team—which also included the likes of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and more—because of his bad relationship with Jordan.

Is MJ the most memeable man alive? He just might be, folks. He just might be.

The man is truly one of a kind. If you've ever been a basketball fan, or sports fan in general, I dare you to watch this clip and not get chills.

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