The Brian Windhorst meme most often refers to the “now why is that?” format making use of an image of the man pointing two fingers in the air. Windhorst, sometimes known by the nickname Windy, is a sportswriter specializing in basketball for ESPN. Additionally, he hosts a podcast on the sport called Hoops Collective.
When on the air, the analyst is often rather expressive with his hands as he walks viewers through his thought process. This, as well as his accuracy in predicting certain moves within the NBA that contributed to his overall fame, led to his appearance in multiple image macro memes.
Who is Brian Windhorst?
Windy began his sports journalism career in the early 2000s by focusing on NBA legend LeBron James, who attended the same high school as the writer, albeit years later. After earning a BA in journalism from Kent State University, Windhorst became the youngest traveling NBA beat writer in the U.S. as he covered the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Akron Beacon Journal.
He later wrote for The Plain Dealer before ESPN hired him in 2010 to report on James’ career with the Miami Heat, then followed him back to Cleveland in 2014.
Windhorst’s writing has earned recognition from the United States Basketball Writers Association and the Associated Press, as well as respect from many NBA fans.
How Brian Windhorst became a meme
The most notable meme featuring Windhorst comes from an episode of ESPN’s First Take on July 1, 2022. At the time, basketball fans were abuzz over a trade between the Utah Jazz and the Brooklyn Nets involving forward Royce O’Neale.
Windhorst described the trade as “very strange,” and in just a couple minutes, outlined his theory for why the teams had made the unusual move to trade O’Neale for a future first-round draft pick. During his impressive analysis, he correctly predicted where other NBA players would end up as a result of the deal.
On the same day, Barstool Sports media personality Steven Cheah posted a clip from First Take highlighting Windhorst’s analysis, calling it an “absolute masterclass.”
The post earned heavy engagement, and later that day, the official Barstool Sports account quote tweeted a post by fellow NBA journalist Adrian Wojnarowski confirming Windhorst’s accuracy. This quote tweet appears to be the origin of the screenshot that became the Brian Windhorst meme.
What does a Brian Windhorst meme look like?
Along with the image, the meme is paired with two statements that represent a contradiction in logic typically followed by the question: “Now why is that?”
One of the first of these gags comments on the phenomenon of people claiming that they’re only going to have one drink at a bar, but then leaving their tab open. Twitter user @evanempdx posted this joke on July 2, 2022.
Many more memes about Windhorst followed this format, but others have appeared over the past two years that simply reference his reputation as a stellar NBA analyst.
2024 resurgence
In September 2024, memes and general references around Windy surged online following the announcement that another familiar figure in NBA journalism was leaving ESPN. On September 18, Adrian Wojnarowski revealed that he’s retiring from the network and from the news industry as a whole.
“I understand the commitment required in my role and it’s an investment that I’m no longer driven to make,” he explained on Twitter. “Time isn’t in endless supply and I want to spend mine in ways that are more personally meaningful,”
The news inspired jokes from Wojnarowski fans that they would have to settle for getting the NBA news from Windhorst in spite of the fact that Windy was considered to have bested “Woj” in analysis back in July 2022.
Brian Windhorst meme examples
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