--- title: President Obama Pokes Fun at Crying Michael Jordan Meme description: President Barack Obama on Tuesday poked fun at Michael Jordan while bestowing the legendary athlete with the Presidential Medal of Freedom canonical: https://time.com/4580869/crying-michael-jordan-president-obama-meme-space-jam/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-22T21:55:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:14.483Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Obama Pokes Fun at Michael Jordan Over Crying Meme and Space Jam og:description: He's more than just the guy from Space Jam og:url: https://time.com/4580869/crying-michael-jordan-president-obama-meme-space-jam/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4fb7e84182b8cf5/6988af7efb4eac6e8788ffef/michael-jordan-medal-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: NBA star Jordan and musician Springsteen attend Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony at White House in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Obama Pokes Fun at Michael Jordan Over Crying Meme and Space Jam twitter:description: He's more than just the guy from Space Jam twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4fb7e84182b8cf5/6988af7efb4eac6e8788ffef/michael-jordan-medal-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Pokes Fun at Michael Jordan Over Crying Meme and _Space Jam_ > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: President Obama Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to Robert de Niro, Diana Ross and More [Watch (HLS stream): President Obama Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to Robert de Niro, Diana Ross and More](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KeQPCWgr.m3u8) (2:08)  _Published 2016-11-22. "Everybody on this stage has touched me in a very powerful, very personal way," Obama said_  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Nov 22, 2016 9:55 PM UTC  NBA star Michael Jordan and musician Bruce Springsteen attend the Presidential Medal of Freedom awards in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on Nov. 22, 2016. NBA star Michael Jordan and musician Bruce Springsteen attend the Presidential Medal of Freedom awards in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on Nov. 22, 2016. Carlos Barria—Reuters  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Nov 22, 2016 9:55 PM UTC President Barack Obama on Tuesday poked fun at Michael Jordan while [bestowing](http://time.com/4580807/president-obama-presidential-medal-of-freedom/) the legendary athlete and 20 other [Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients](http://time.com/4573699/tom-hanks-michael-jordan-presidential-medal-freedom-winners/) with the nation’s highest civilian honor. While praising Jordan, Obama said the basketball great is “more than just a logo, more than just an Internet meme,” in reference to the [popular image of Jordan crying](http://www.wsj.com/articles/basketball-legend-surges-on-web-as-crying-jordan-1454531219?cb=logged0.1720610479824245). He also mentioned the 1996 hit movie _Space Jam_, which Jordan starred in among a set of Looney Tunes cartoon characters. “Today, we celebrate extraordinary Americans who have lifted our spirits, strengthened out union, pushed us towards progress,” Obama said. “I always love doing this event, but this is a particularly impressive class. We’ve got innovators and artists … public servants, rabble rousers, athletes, renowned character actors, like the guy from _Space Jam_.” > [](https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/801158224015552512) > [](https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/801169256545157120) The _Space Jam_ and meme comments prompted laughter from the crowd and from Jordan himself. Other honorees included Robert DeNiro, Cicely Tyson, Tom Hanks, Robert Redford, Ellen DeGeneres, Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Vin Scully and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;} ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4580869/crying-michael-jordan-president-obama-meme-space-jam/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4580869/crying-michael-jordan-president-obama-meme-space-jam/"},"headline":"President Obama Pokes Fun at Michael Jordan Over Crying Meme and Space Jam","datePublished":"2016-11-22T21:55:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:49:14.483Z","description":"\"He's more than just a logo, more than just an Internet meme\"","url":"https://time.com/4580869/crying-michael-jordan-president-obama-meme-space-jam/","keywords":["White House","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4fb7e84182b8cf5/6988af7efb4eac6e8788ffef/michael-jordan-medal-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf4fb7e84182b8cf5/6988af7efb4eac6e8788ffef/michael-jordan-medal-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NBA star Jordan and musician Springsteen attend Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony at White House in Washington","caption":"NBA star Jordan and musician Springsteen attend Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony at White House in Washington","creditText":"Carlos Barria—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4580869/crying-michael-jordan-president-obama-meme-space-jam/","name":"President Obama Pokes Fun at Michael Jordan Over Crying Meme and Space Jam"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Obama Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to Robert de Niro, Diana Ross and More","description":"\"Everybody on this stage has touched me in a very powerful, very personal way,\" Obama said","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KeQPCWgr/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-11-22T22:48:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KeQPCWgr.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4580869/crying-michael-jordan-president-obama-meme-space-jam/","duration":"PT2M8S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4580869/crying-michael-jordan-president-obama-meme-space-jam/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```