I Used to Pray for Times Like This

About

I Used to Pray for Times Like This is a reaction image of American basketball player Michael Jordan sobbing into the trophy after his first title for the Chicago Bulls in 1991. The image is typically paired with the lyrics of the song "Dreams and Nightmares (intro)" by Meek Mill, which says "I used to pray for times like this." Around September 2021 the image became a prevalent reaction meme on Twitter, often being used to express happiness about certain news or topic of interest to a user.

Origin

On June 5th, 1991, Michael Jordan and his team, the Chicago Bulls, won over the Lakers in Game 2 of the NBA Finals. NBA’s official photographer, Andrew D. Bernstein^[1], captured the moment Jordan was sobbing into the trophy after his first title, with his father at his side (shown below).

The earliest found usage of the meme paired with Meek Mill's lyric "I used to pray for times like this" from the music "Dreams and Nightmares (intro)" music was posted on Twitter^[2] by user @reactjpg on September 30th, 2021. The post (shown below) garnered roughly 160 likes and 14 retweets in two years.

Spread

Over the next few years, the image was popularized as a reaction meme on Twitter. For instance, on October 28th, 2022, Twitter^[3] user @GimK_ celebrated the release of new music from Rihanna using the Michael Jordan sobbing meme. The post (shown below, left) garnered over 3,700 likes and 755 retweets in nine months. On January 8th, 2023, Twitter^[4] user @gcindisguise uploaded a version of Meek Mill's lyric image macro featuring American basketball player LeBron James. The post (shown below, right) garnered almost 1,000 likes and six retweets in seven months.

On October 20th, 2022, the Facebook^[5] meme page NFL Memes posted the image paired with the overlay text "When the Thursday Night game is actually exciting." The post (shown below) garnered roughly 470 likes and 80 shares in a year.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References