Michael Jordan Jamming to Different Songs Is the Internet’s Best New Meme

Evan Romano
·5 min read

From Men's Health

  • In the opening moments of The Last Dance's 10th episode, Michael Jordan is seen jamming out to a song on the team's bus.

  • A new Twitter account imagines Jordan jamming to a number of different songs—and it's amazing.

  • Check them out, along with the truth of what he was really jamming out to below.

Barely a minute into the 10th and final episode of The Last Dance, ESPN's documentary about Michael Jordan and the '90s Chicago Bulls, and footage shows the man himself positively grooving, sunglasses on his face, and headphones on his head. He'd tell the camera crew who he's actually listening to—R&B artist Kenny Lattimore—but we live in 2020. The internet clearly had other plans with this clip, and a new Twitter account called @JordanJamming has taken things to a new level.

We knew that the music in The Last Dance was already incredible. But this new account has just decided to imagine What If...? By taking that same MJ dancing clip from The Last Dance, and superimposing various different songs over it (all of which work to just about perfection, we might add), we've got a whole new layer of fun. From the very on-brand choice of "Jumpman" by Future and Drake, to the unexpected, like "Sk8r Boi" by Avril Lavigne, this account has taken little time to absolutely explode.

And honestly? It works. We don't know what kind of music Michael Jordan likes (though there have been rumors that he's denied that he doesn't like rap/hip-hop music), but it's easy to imagine him jamming out to just about anything once we're given visual evidence. Does anything look wrong about MJ jamming out to "Levels" by Avicii? No. In fact, it looks perfect.

The bio of the @JordanJamming account asks an interesting question: "What was MJ really listening to?" Luckily, that's a mystery that no longer needs to be solved. In the clip, Jordan tells the cameras that he's listening to a song by Kenny Lattimore, bragging that it's an album that hasn't even been released yet, and he got it because Lattimore is a friend of his.

Lattimore tweeted that the real song was "Days Like This," off his album From The Soul of Man. "In 1998 I sent Michael Jordan an advanced copy of my “From the Soul of Man” album" he wrote. "Who knew “Days Like This” was his pre-game hype song though."

And while it's interesting to know what song MJ was actually jamming out to, it's even more fun to picture him picturing to some of these other songs. What if Jordan was into rock? What if he was into Nickelodeon theme songs? What about funk? Those answers and more below—be careful, watching these is very addicting.

Let's start, briefly, with "Jumpman." The song from superstar rappers Drake and Future is a tribute to MJ and his eternally cool brand. So it makes sense that it works.

"Ride Wit Me" by Nelly also works seamlessly.

But so does "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield?

MJ has never been a west coast guy. But "Dani California" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers also works super, super well. Maybe he should sell the Charlotte Hornets and try to buy the Lakers?

Things are way off the rails. But the Zoey 101 theme song is pretty unquestionably an anthem. This isn't out of the realm of possibility.

Everyone's moved like this when listening to early Justin Bieber once or twice (or more).

The only thing inaccurate about this one is that it's impossible to listen to "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton and only dance; you have to sing along, too.

Is MJ into pop punk? Let's imagine that MJ is into pop punk, because in this one he really looks like he's having a blast with Fall Out Boy's "Sugar, We're Going Down"

Another jam. Avril is eternal. Michael looks like a natural 2002 MTV fan.

For more of these extremely fun mash-ups, you can check out the @JordanJamming account on Twitter.

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