In 2023, Mark Jackson commented, “What happened to the game I love?” during a basketball match that became insanely viral. The Internet is an unexpected place where you can never predict what gets the attention. No one would have thought that a sentence from the commentary of a basketball match would get that much attention.

Mark Jackson is an American former professional basketball player who was the NBA commentator during the 2023 Western Conference Finals. The match was played on May 18th, 2023, between the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers.

The match was going intense but a foul in the first half became the point of origin of this insanely popular meme.

Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell made a flagrant foul against Jamal Murray (Nuggets player). The match was paused and referees verified the foul leaving Los Angeles Lakers fans in shock. Nuggets got an additional foul shot. Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy were the commentators. Mark was enraged and said, “What happened to the game I love?”

The social media influence of the meme

In July, it was announced that Mark Jackson was leaving ESPN, which boosted the meme. Mark and Jeff did not agree to that decision and many other players also questioned the referee’s decision that night. Fans praised Mark for taking a bold stand and his statement spread like a strong over all social media.

“What happened to the game I love?” was not just limited to the NBA back then. Players from different games used it as a meme to show the dirty changes in their respective games. Video games like Fortnite, Pokemon, Call of Duty, and many others used this meme to show the unacceptable changes.

Call of Duty’s vulgar voice issue received great attention at that time. After the game announced that it would moderate everything, a clip with vulgar voice chat exposed COD’s failure. Such moments, along with many other games, were titled “What happened to the game I love?” 

The meme was still a hit till the middle of 2024 but began to decline after that. November 2024 showed a sudden spike in its usage but we all know that a meme has a peak time and doesn’t work shortly after it passes. However, that phrase still defines sudden and unreasonable changes in our favorite games very well. This meme shows how we laugh but secretly wish our lovable games to gain their glory back.