Michael Jordan was in the crowd for the NCAA title game

Published Apr. 4, 2016 9:39 p.m. ET

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Andrew Lynch

The last time North Carolina played for the NCAA men's basketball national championship, Michael Jordan was on hand -- and at center court, where he was announced as part of the Hall of Fame's class of 2009.

That's a pretty decent Hall of Fame class.

A few months later, Jordan gave the acceptance speech that would launch the Crying Jordan face:

It's a meme so ubiquitous that even NPR recently addressed the subject. If you've somehow avoided it until now, well, you don't actually exist. But here it is anyway:

What does this all have to do with Monday's NCAA title game between North Carolina and Villanova? Simple. As soon as Jordan showed up, the internet got ready to unleash its Crying Jordan memes. In fact, it was already happening as soon as Jordan took his seat:

And when Villanova hit a ridiculous game-winner after a Marcus Paige triple tied it up in the closing seconds, the internet indeed went wild.

Maybe MJ is just emotional about running into Craig Sager, who recently announced that his leukemia is no longer in remission. The two basketball legends caught up, and Jordan complimented Sager on his shoes:

Back to those seats for a second, though. We're kind of surprised Jordan doesn't have the pull to make sure that he and Ahmad Rashad get to sit courtside -- assuming he wasn't trying to blend into the crowd and avoid his fate.

Must have been a really tough ticket, right?

Well then! Guess it could have been worse.

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