# James Harden's Red Eyes During Game 2 of the 2019 Western Conference Semifinals, Draymond Green accidentally poked Houston Rockets guard James Harden in the eye, leaving him red-eyed and tearing on the TNT broadcast[1]. The image quickly became a Twitter reaction template for sad moments and stoner jokes[3]. ## Origin The source moment happened during Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals between the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors, when Draymond Green swiped at a rebound and stuck his fingers into James Harden's eyes[1]. TNT's broadcast held on Harden's face for several seconds while he blinked and watered up, and clips of that reaction spread immediately after the game aired[1]. A still pulled from that TNT feed was posted to Twitter by Bleacher Report shortly after the incident, which is the version that became the template most people recognize[2][4]. - **Platform:** TNT broadcast (source) / Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2019 ## Overview James Harden's Red Eyes is a still frame of the Rockets guard staring blankly at the court with his eyes bloodshot and welling up with tears after Draymond Green's finger caught him in the face[1]. On Twitter the shot got paired with two very different caption styles: earnest sadposting about heartbreaks, breakups and fictional character deaths, and stoner jokes riffing on the fact that Harden looked like he had just finished a blunt[3]. The format works because the image reads as pure, quiet devastation without any theatrical crying, which is what made it swap so easily between genuine emotional captions and weed punchlines[4]. It sits in the same lane as the Michael Jordan crying face as an NBA-native sad reaction, except Harden's version is a real-time injury rather than a Hall of Fame speech[4]. ## How It Spread Once the Bleacher Report tweet went out, the image was flipped into a reaction meme within hours[2]. Twitter user @_Zeets used it for a Game of Thrones sadposting joke that pulled in more than 640 retweets and 3,200 likes, while @Chenzo323's caption cleared 2,400 retweets and 8,000 likes[4]. A second lane of jokes leaned on the fact that Harden's red, glassy eyes looked exactly like someone who had been smoking weed, with @theDYNAMICS posting a marijuana-themed caption that gained over 190 retweets and 1,000 likes[4]. Twitter Moments packaged the wave of jokes into its own recap the same week, cementing the still as a shared reaction template rather than a one-off game highlight[3]. ## How to Use The image is typically dropped as a standalone reply or quote-tweet, with a caption describing a moment sad enough to make you cry. A common convention is to name a very specific gut-punch scenario, a fictional character death, a breakup, a lost bet, so the deadpan stare does the emotional work. The stoner variant often includes wordplay about being high, red eyes, or coming back from a smoke break. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is James Harden's Red Eyes? It's a reaction image of James Harden staring at the court with bloodshot, watery eyes after Draymond Green poked him in the face during the 2019 NBA playoffs[1]. ### Where did James Harden's Red Eyes come from? The shot came from TNT's broadcast of Game 2 of the 2019 Western Conference Semifinals between the Rockets and Warriors, then spread as a still image on Twitter[1][2]. ### What does James Harden's Red Eyes mean? On Twitter it's used two ways: as a sad reaction for heartbreak or emotional moments, and as a joke about looking stoned, since Harden's eyes went bright red[3][4]. ### How do you use James Harden's Red Eyes? People post the still with a caption naming a very specific sad or emotional situation, or they use it for weed jokes riffing on the red-eyed look[4]. ### Is James Harden's Red Eyes still popular? It stuck around as a classic NBA Twitter reaction image alongside the Jordan crying face, though its peak usage was in the days after the 2019 playoff incident[3][4]. ## References 1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD8vF4wdivc]() 2. [https://twitter.com/BleacherReport]() 3. [https://twitter.com/i/moments]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/james-hardens-red-eyes]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/james-hardens-red-eyes Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library