Drake's Courtside Freakout

About

Drake's Courtside Freakout refers to a reaction video based on recording artist Drake's expression to basketball player Kevin Durant's injury inflicted during game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals. The meme has since been used by people online to express real or feigned frustration or sorrow.

Origin

On June 10th, 2019, during game 5 of the NBA Finals, Golden State Warriors player Kevin Durant suffered an Achilles injury. As he was walking off the court, Drake expressed his frustration through his hand and facial movements (shown below). However, because Drake is a Toronto Raptors fan, many suspected that his reaction was sarcastic or insincere.

That day, ESPN shared the video with the caption "Drake consoled Kevin Durant as he walked off in the second quarter." The tweet received more than 5 millions views, 100,000 likes and 16,000 retweets in three days (shown below).

Spread

That day, the website gfycat^[1] user @pkachgoat published a GIF of the moment. The post received more than 946,000 in two days (shown below).

That day, Twitter user @DavidDTSS tweeted^[2] a clip of the video with the caption "When your wife says she doesn't feel like going to that baby shower she RSVP'd yall for anymore." Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 15 million views, 3,600 likes and 650 retweets (shown below).

Over the next several days, others shared the video adding different captions. On June 11th, Twitter user @SupremeOne3 tweeted, "When your niece is explaining something tragic that happened to one of her dolls." The post received more than 122,000 likes and 34,000 retweets in two days (shown below).

On June 12th, Twitter^[2] published a Moments page on the reaction.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References