Sports

Brian Windhorst Reveals Backstory To His Viral ‘What’s Going On In Utah’ Clip

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Brian Windhorst rose to prominence in the sports media as “the guy who follows around LeBron James” early in James’ career with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Since that point, however, Windhorst as come to be known as one of ESPN’s premier NBA analysts.

Windhorst has worked at ESPN since 2010. But it wasn’t until just last summer that he produced his magnum opus.

It came during an episode of First Take and during a discussion about the upcoming NBA free agency period. Windhorst launched into an over two-minute monologue about the Utah Jazz, complete with hand gestures and camera cuts.

The segment immediately went viral and Windhorst became one of the most popular memes in basketball history.

Nearly one year later, Cam Wolf of GQ.com sat down with Windhorst and others on set that day to break down what led to the viral moment.

“A day before Kawhi Leonard went to the Clippers, I had a feeling that he wanted to play with Paul George, and I did a SportsCenter hit where I hinted at it but didn’t go strong enough, and I regretted it because I liked my information,” Windhorst said about why he committed to launching into the rant.

But why all the hand movements and odd body language? Windhorst explained that that part of things wasn’t part of the plan.

“I actually do more hand gestures now, but when we first started doing home broadcasts, you had to be very careful. If you moved too much, the picture would pixelate. And so I became practiced in: don’t move too much, don’t be too animated,” said of his literal hand waving. “The chairs on First Take are very, very good. In that particular moment, I leaned back because that chair is a great chair. You would never normally lean back, and so when I leaned back as part of the storytelling, I made gestures that I normally wouldn’t. That just happened in the moment, but those are the best chairs. Stephen A. has rigorous chair requirements, and he is rewarded with spectacular, spectacular chairs on that desk.

“To that whole finger thing—it wasn’t the finger, it was the chair. Nobody respects the chair.”

So there you have. The most viral, memeable rant in ESPN NBA history was all based on a gut feeling and comfortable chairs.

What a legend.