Where did the famous Michael Jordan meme “F**k them kids” originate from? All you need to know
Michael Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time. Despite all of the success that he's achieved, Jordan couldn't avoid the power of the internet and has been a part of many popular memes.
Jordan's popularity as a meme skyrocketed after the release of "The Last Dance." While there is no doubt that the documentary is amazing, it also had a lot of meme-worthy material.
A few years before the documentary, Michael Jordan was part of the "F**k them kids" meme. This meme originated in 2016 and is used even now from time to time. This article will reveal the origin of the popular meme and everything else you should know about it.
Michael Jordan's "F**k them kids" meme originated in 2016
Michael Jordan and Chris Paul were attending a kids basketball camp in 2016. At one point, Paul challenged Jordan to play a game of "Around the World." If he missed three shots, every kid in the camp would have gotten Jordans for free.
The game varies from player to player, with Jordan taking shots from the elbow and the 3-point line.
He knocked down his first shot from the elbow before making a free-throw jumper. The basketball legend then moved to the 3-point line and drained three long-range shots in a row.
On his sixth shot, Paul put his hand in front of Michael Jordan, trying to get him to miss a shot. Unfortunately for the kids, that did not help and Jordan ended up making every single shot.
Making every single shot against no defense should be easy for every NBA player. However, it's important to note that Jordan was 53 years old during the challenge. That's probably why Paul thought that Jordan was going to miss a couple of shots.
Despite his retirement, Jordan is still very competitive and daring him to make all the shots was a bad idea. When the video resurfaced in 2018, Twitter user Killa Tex made a meme that became very popular.
😂😂😂😂😂😂 #NikeBoycott https://t.co/UP4t9WSbBj
Jordan broke the hearts of every kid at the basketball camp and became the subject of a popular meme as a reward.
The popularity of the meme and Chris Paul's reaction
The meme quickly spread all over social media and some versions of it included other NBA players and characters from pop culture. Chris Paul, unsurprisingly, wasn't too happy about it.
"We were in Santa Barbara, and he made shots, and they just said, 'To hell with the kids, man,'" Paul said to Bleacher Report. "So forget him man. He's wrong for that."
One of the best examples is the caption with Anakin Skywalker's face. It is a reference to the popular character killing children in "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith."
The meme was also used when Gordon Hayward refused to leave the NBA Bubble to attend the birth of his child.