# I Used to Pray for Times Like This A 1991 photo of Michael Jordan sobbing into his first NBA Finals trophy got a second life on Twitter in September 2021, when users began pairing it with the opening lyric from Meek Mill's 'Dreams and Nightmares' intro. By late 2022, sports accounts and fan pages were using the image to react to anything from Rihanna music drops to a halfway decent Thursday Night Football game. ## Origin The source photo was shot by NBA photographer Andrew D. Bernstein on June 12, 1991, right after the Chicago Bulls beat the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 to clinch Jordan's first NBA title, with his father James at his side[1]. The 'Dreams and Nightmares (Intro)' song that supplies the caption was released by Meek Mill on his debut album in October 2012[2]. The earliest known post pairing the photo with the lyric came from Twitter user @reactjpg on September 30, 2021, who dropped the image with the line 'I used to pray for times like this' and nothing else[5]. The tweet picked up around 160 likes and 14 retweets over the following two years, which was modest, but the pairing itself seeded a template that other accounts picked up[7]. - **Platform:** Twitter - **Creator:** @reactjpg (earliest known poster) - **Date:** 2021 ## Overview I Used to Pray for Times Like This takes a 1991 Andrew D. Bernstein photo of Michael Jordan hugging the Larry O'Brien trophy and weeping, then stacks it with the opening line of Meek Mill's 2012 track 'Dreams and Nightmares'[1]. The payoff lands because Jordan's face reads as pure overwhelmed joy, so the lyric turns any small win into a championship moment. A typical post sits above a screenshot or news headline, with the image doing the emotional heavy lifting on its own[3]. Variations swap Jordan for other athletes who have had their own cathartic trophy moments, with a LeBron James edit being one of the more widely shared alternates[4]. Sports accounts use it for game recaps, fans use it for album announcements, and the Meek Mill lyric is sometimes written over the image as a caption, sometimes just implied by posting the photo alone[7]. ## How to Use Posters typically reply to good news with just the Jordan photo, trusting followers to supply the Meek Mill lyric in their heads. Common conventions include writing the full 'I used to pray for times like this' line as a quote tweet above the picture, overlaying the lyric onto the image as a macro, or swapping Jordan for another crying athlete when the subject calls for it[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is I Used to Pray for Times Like This? It is a reaction image of Michael Jordan crying into his 1991 NBA championship trophy, captioned with the opening lyric from Meek Mill's 'Dreams and Nightmares (Intro)'[1][7]. ### Where did I Used to Pray for Times Like This come from? Twitter user @reactjpg posted the earliest known pairing of the Jordan photo and the Meek Mill lyric on September 30, 2021[5]. ### What does I Used to Pray for Times Like This mean? It expresses overwhelming joy or disbelief at good news, using Jordan's famous trophy sob to sell the emotion[3]. ### How do you use I Used to Pray for Times Like This? Post the Jordan image, with or without the lyric written out, as a reaction to any announcement or moment you have been waiting for, from album drops to a watchable Thursday Night Football game[6]. ### Is I Used to Pray for Times Like This still popular? It is a classic Twitter reaction image that still shows up around major sports and music moments, with widely shared uses documented through 2023[4][7]. ## References 1. [https://chicago.suntimes.com/2015/6/4/18481099/the-stories-behind-two-iconic-michael-jordan-photos]() 2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8gfqs1-NuE]() 3. [https://twitter.com/GimK_/status/1585844500911591425]() 4. [https://twitter.com/gcindisguise/status/1612232404625723393]() 5. [https://twitter.com/reactjpg/status/1443457124860776451]() 6. [https://www.facebook.com/NFLMemez/posts/pfbid0xcbgSskLZqAe3WqQtVrRWWRkq3XfRnoa1WfJ5zoBDzBK8M7es1qayvdnbVN63UhRl]() 7. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-used-to-pray-for-times-like-this]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/i-used-to-pray-for-times-like-this Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library