A Guide to #HeatTwitter Memes for 2018-19 NBA Season
Hey, y’all. The NBA season is here, and it’s time to support your favorite hoops squad by posting content with your friends online. If you use Twitter dot com like I do, you know how important content is.
It is the water flowing down the winding Internet river. It is the blood pumping through our veins, giving us life. Without content you have nothing. It can come in many forms: a joke, a picture, a video, a gif, a poorly-made podcast, a typo-riddled blog post, etc.
It does not matter what kind or quality of content you produce. The content production game is about quantity. You can’t halt the flowing river. You can’t stop the beating heart. The Internet demands content, and if you can’t feed it, you’re s**t out of luck.
The easiest form of content to produce is the “meme.” It’s as simple as finding a new meme and sharing it, preferably (but not necessarily) after making a small alteration. The only difficult part of memes can be discovering and catching onto the joke before it gets stale.
For those Heat fans who are struggling to feed the content beast, here is a list and breakdown of all the cool hip memes for the 2018-19 Miami Heat season.
1. You Know Josh Richardson Had to Do it to ‘Em
— One Eyed Jack (@alfonsohoops) October 26, 2018
This one is simple but effective. The picture is Josh Richardson replicating the classic, “You Know I Had to Do it to ‘Em” meme. The great thing about this meme is that there is no learning curve. People will instantly recognize the original and appreciate this Heat-themed twist. The meaning is relatively straightforward. If J-Rich is on the court dropping bombs from 3, dunking on people, and generally making opponents look silly, you know it’s because he had to do it to ‘em.
2. The Marcus Camby.gif
— One Eyed Jack (@alfonsohoops) October 26, 2018
This is a gif best used collectively. The Camby gif can be used in response to any tweet or take that you’re against. For the particularly egregious takes, it is best to assemble a posse to repeatedly post this gif in the offender’s Twitter mentions. This meme is great because it allows you to be a part of a virtual mob, and it’s always nice to be a part of something.
3. Alonzo Mourning Acceptance
THE 2018 MEME BRACKET CHAMPION IS pic.twitter.com/Nfcc8ktNu1
— ☕netw3rk (@netw3rk) October 5, 2018
This is easily the most legendary piece of content in the Miami Heat meme canon. It transcends the Miami Heat, declared the best NBA meme by The Ringer. It transcends basketball as it captures a stunningly wide range of emotions and the entire process of grief in a few short seconds.
This gif has universal appeal. It beautifully and succinctly depicts mankind’s struggle to cope with the unfair and meaningless nature of life, ultimately having no choice but to accept this reality and move forward. The gif loops as all gifs do, but the repetition of this process of denial and dejection followed by reluctant acceptance reminds us all that coming to terms with life’s emptiness is a never-ending cycle. Alonzo Mourning is the mythical Sisyphus in gif form.
4. Justise Winslow “Oh That’s Good”
This one doesn’t need much description. It’s a picture of Justise Winslow declaring that something is good. Use it whenever you think something is good.
5. Justise Winslow “Oh That’s Not Good”
Same thing but for when something is not good.
6. Justise Winslow Sipping Café Bustelo
— One Eyed Jack (@alfonsohoops) October 26, 2018
Here we see Justise Winslow enjoying a nice cup of coffee as someone in the corner looks at him in some combination of fear, envy, or enmity. Simply label Justise as something or someone that is consuming and enjoying a cup of whatever the thing or person indicated in the label may be enjoying. In the corner, label the onlooker as someone who would hate on this consumption. In this example, we see Heat Twitter consuming high-quality memes as fanbases from other teams look on in envy.
7. Hassan Looking at Bam and Goran
— One Eyed Jack (@alfonsohoops) October 26, 2018
Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic seem like they’re having a good time together while Hassan Whiteside looks at them with an expression that one could read in slightly different ways. Maybe Hassan is annoyed or maybe he’s lonely and jealous of their camaraderie. Regardless of your interpretation, the dynamic depicted in the photo is familiar to everyone, and it shouldn’t be difficult to find proper labels for each person.
8. Tyke Lue
— Tyke Lue (@TykeLue) September 7, 2018
The baby looks kind of silly and has a indefinable expression that gives it versatility. Any emotion can be read into this inchoate face. This meme has high variance in its effectiveness. Some will be delighted by the baby’s inscrutable demeanor. Others will be perplexed and lash out in confusion. What does this baby have to do with Miami Heat basketball? I don’t know.
9. Justise Better
#JustiseBetter pic.twitter.com/zAFHkOuiwC
— One Eyed Jack (@alfonsohoops) September 28, 2018
There’s no picture or gif needed for this meme. It’s simple. If anyone states that anything or anyone is good, simply respond “Justise Better.”
10. Justise Better Now
The Miami Heat Beat debut single. #JustiseBetter
Joint production by: @brassjazz and @Lefty_Leif #HEATCulture #5RSN | @IAmJustise @5ReasonsSports @MiamiHEAT pic.twitter.com/eByIoNu3Ji— Miami Heat Beat (@miaheatbeat) October 24, 2018
Editor’s Note: #HeatTwitter’s new anthem