What is Get Ready To Learn Chinese Buddy?

It is a fake Bleacher Report image macro of NBA commissioner Adam Silver captioned with the fabricated quote "Get ready to learn Chinese buddy," used online as a joke threat that a player is about to be sent to China's CBA.

Where did Get Ready To Learn Chinese Buddy come from?

The parody Twitter account @realnbaquotz posted the original graphic on November 8th, 2022, framing it as Adam Silver's reaction to Kyrie Irving's antisemitism controversy.

What does Get Ready To Learn Chinese Buddy mean?

It works as a mock demotion notice, joking that an athlete has played so badly they no longer belong in a top league and should start practicing Mandarin for a move to the Chinese Basketball Association, often the Shanghai Sharks.

How do you use Get Ready To Learn Chinese Buddy?

People typically reply to a post about a player's bad performance with the Adam Silver macro, sometimes adding a short caption naming the player or team the joke is aimed at, like "The Nets to Ben Simmons".

Is Get Ready To Learn Chinese Buddy still popular?

The format broke out in late 2022 and stayed active through 2023, jumping from Twitter to TikTok, Instagram and Facebook and getting recycled during moments like Dillon Brooks' 2023 playoff loss to the Lakers.

Get Ready To Learn Chinese Buddy

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Published August 12, 2026

Get Ready To Learn Chinese Buddy is a fake Bleacher Report image macro of NBA commissioner Adam Silver with a fabricated quote telling Kyrie Irving to learn Mandarin, first posted in November 2022. Sports fans on Twitter adopted it as a mock demotion notice aimed at underperforming players, joking they belonged in China's CBA instead of the NBA.

basketball memes fake quote memes image macro memes catchphrase memes 2022 memes

Overview

Get Ready To Learn Chinese Buddy is a fake Bleacher Report style infographic showing NBA commissioner Adam Silver next to the fabricated quote, "Get ready to learn Chinese buddy"1. The line is presented as if Silver said it directly to Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving in November 2022, during the fallout from Irving's antisemitism controversy2.

Once loose on Twitter, the macro turned into a general purpose mock demotion notice for athletes1. Fans slap the image on posts about players who look washed, choke in the playoffs, or otherwise embarrass themselves, joking that the player's next paycheck will come from China's CBA and the Shanghai Sharks rather than an NBA franchise3.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter

Creator

@realnbaquotz

Date

2022

On November 8th, 2022, the parody Twitter account @realnbaquotz posted the fake Adam Silver graphic with the caption "Get ready to learn Chinese buddy," framed as a warning to Kyrie Irving after his suspension by the Nets3. The tweet pulled in over 170 retweets and 2,000 likes within four months3.

The format piggybacked on a longer running joke about the NBA's tangled relationship with China, which had been simmering since Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey's 2019 tweet supporting Hong Kong protesters and the league's awkward response4. The specific Silver macro gave that anxiety a punchy visual and a repeatable punchline1.

How It Spread

Through November and December 2022, NBA Twitter turned the image into a reaction template for any player having a bad stretch3. On November 8th, 2022, the account @c--ksources replied to a post about Ben Simmons' season with the macro captioned "The Nets to Ben Simmons," pulling roughly 30 retweets and 1,400 likes3. On December 21st, 2022, basketball account @LakeShowYo captioned the image "Kendrick Nunn" after a rough Lakers outing, and that post cleared 840 retweets and 11,200 likes3.

In early 2023 the macro jumped off Twitter and started appearing on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, and edits of it followed Memphis Grizzlies guard Dillon Brooks after the Grizzlies were bounced from the playoffs by the Lakers2. The joke also drifted outside basketball, showing up in Valorant voice chats and general sports discourse whenever someone wanted to declare a player finished1.

By the mid-2020s the phrase itself had outgrown the original image, working as a plain text reply, a video overlay, or a caption on unrelated screenshots1. Reports noted a sharp uptick in Google searches for "learn Chinese meme" tied to the format's spread1.

How to Use This Meme

The typical version keeps the fake Bleacher Report layout with Adam Silver's photo and the six word quote, then adds a caption naming the target player or team, such as "The Nets to Ben Simmons"3. A common convention is to post it as a quick reply under a tweet reporting a bad stat line, a blown game, or a trade rumor, framing the subject as one step from a Shanghai Sharks contract1.