Brian Windhorst

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About

Brian Windhorst is a basketball analyst and sportswriter for the NBA and ESPN. He's made multiple appearances on the sports talk show First Take featuring Stephen A. Smith. Windhorst is most known in memes for his takes on the 2022 off-season trades involving players like Kevin Durant leaving the Brooklyn Nets. After his two-minute segment about the Utah Jazz went viral on Twitter in July 2022, Windhorst became a four-panel template and a meme called Now Why Is That? which humorously showcases contradictions with the punchline.

History

Brian Windhorst was born in Akron, Ohio in 1978 and went to the same high school that LeBron James would later attend.^[1] Windhorst graduated from Kent State University in 2000 with a degree in journalism. Three years later, he worked for the Cleveland Cavaliers as a beat writer for the Akron Beacon Journal. He started working the same year as James' rookie season. While James was the youngest player in the NBA, Windhorst was the youngest traveling NBA beat writer.^[1]

He started writing for ESPN in 2010 once James left Cleaveland for the Miami Heat following the infamous decision. He specifically followed the course of James' career and exclusively covered him in Miami.

Going into the 2020s, Windhorst continued to garner acclaim for his basketball opinions, predictions and writing. In 2022, he bested notable basketball analyst Adrian Wojnarowski, also known as "Woj," on James Harden's 2022 trade from the Brooklyn Nets to the Philadelphia 76ers.^[1]

As of 2022, Windhorst is a writer for NBA on ESPN and also a two-time best-selling author for his books Return of the King and Lebron, Inc.: The Making of a Billion-Dollar Athlete.

First Take Appearance Regarding Kevin Durant's 2022 Off-Season Trade

On July 1st, 2022, Windhorst appeared on ESPN's talk show First Take to discuss "What's going on in Utah?" related to the off-season moves the Utah Jazz was making. He highlighted a "very strange trade" between the Jazz and the Brooklyn Nets who traded Royce O'Neale for a future first-round draft pick.

At the 0:40-minute mark (shown below), the camera is isolated on Windhorst who becomes more expressive with his hands and fingers, pointing them in many directions as he outlined what he believed the trade alluded to. Ultimately, it alluded to what team Kevin Durant would move to by the end of 2022.

Also on July 1st, Twitter^[2] user StevenCheah posted the aforementioned clip of Windhorst to Twitter, claiming that, "Brian Windhorst just ran the First Take desk in circles. They were hanging on his every word for 2+ minutes." The clip received roughly 5.8 million views and 80,500 likes in four days (shown below).

The mass engagement of the aforementioned tweet was ultimately inspired by Adrian Wojnarowski announcing via a tweet^[3] posted later on July 1st that claimed Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert had been traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves. This announcement was accurately foreshadowed by Windhorst in his First Take appearance.

Twitter accounts started to praise Windhorst in humorous memes and tweets. For instance, on July 1st, the Twitter^[4] account of Barstool Sports posted a quote retweet stating, "Windhorst legacy trade," earning roughly 3,700 likes in four days (shown below, left). Also on July 1st, Twitter^[5] user LALeBron23 used a quote from Shaquille O'Neal in a memetic tweet, earning roughly 28,700 likes in four days (shown below, right).

Now Why Is That?

Most likely inspired by the screenshot included in the Barstool Sports tweet,^[4] on July 2nd, 2022, Twitter^[6] user evanempdx captioned the image macro of Windhorst pointing both of his fingers up with, "'Evan says he’s only going to have one drink. / But he told the bartender to leave his card open. / Now why is that?'" The tweet received roughly 33,700 likes in three days (shown below).

Evanempdx's format played on Windhorst's quotes within his First Take segment to humorously highlight a contradiction in a situation, setting or a person's motives. His tweet inspired other meme creators going into July 2022.

On July 2nd, Twitter^[7] user AlexanderWatt used the format to make a joke about why hot dogs come in packs of 10 but hot dog buns come in packs of eight, earning over 100 likes in three days (shown below, left). On July 3rd, Twitter^[8] user JimMWeber made a joke about his friend loving college football but having his wedding in the fall, earning roughly 49,800 likes in two days (shown below, right).