Folks, another NBA season is upon us, and wouldn’t you know it, the sports world’s biggest meme market is heating up again. Pop quiz: do you know the hottest NBA meme right now? The answer might be Hoodie Melo. It all started after the world saw some clips of Carmelo Anthony playing basketball nicely in a snug “hoodie” style sweatshirt. And every thing has been crazy ever since. After that, Melo wore hoodies in many of his posts, outfitted his child in a hoodie, and even snuck one under his new jersey on the official photo day—almost as if the meme molded reality, almost as if all our clamoring compelled him to perform a certain identity, almost as if the propagation of cheap imagery were a way to exert influence on the celebrities we orbit.
Anyway did you know there’s a big new meme in town? And it features the teammate Melo left behind in New York. That’s right: Kristaps Porzingis. The 7-foot-3 star has always been tall. But now he’s big too, after a summer spent working so hard at the gym. All that work means he has been doing a ton of water-drinking. The new meme, which has taken the internet by storm, pokes fun at how Porzingis just loves to hydrate all the time to achieve peak performance on the basketball court. Get a load of Hydrating Kristaps:
Whether he’s on the bench, in the weight room, or surrounded entirely by it, Kristaps Porzingis simply can’t get enough water. He wants to kill it in the grueling 82-game NBA season ahead, so he’s been drinking the clear stuff all the time, and it looks he won’t be stopping anytime soon.
Now, this couldn’t have become a popular meme without some sweet gifs. Check out Kristaps hydrating while congratulating his Latvian national teammates for hitting their own hydration goals. He’s happy because they, like him, are drinking water to fight off fatigue, lubricate joints, regulate body temp, and maintain awesome digestion:
Kristaps is no dummy. The Big Apple’s big man knows there’s nothing better than a nice long swig of H20 to prep yourself for an exciting, focused third season. Water is what gets you in the zone even when your top scorer flees town, your roster suddenly consists only of bad centers, and the temptations of the world’s finest city loom before your 22-year-old multimillionaire eyes:
Water—and basketball. That’s really what life’s all about for Kristaps Porzingis. What else is there? Well, plenty of sleep, too. Here at Deadspin we are totally in love with the Hydrating Kristaps meme. Please, please like and share if you agree.