The NBA elite, as defined by emojis

By Digiday • July 9, 2015 •

Apparently lots of NBA players discovered emojis yesterday.

The so-called Great NBA Emoji Full Court Press of 2015 was sparked a coyish tweet from Dallas Mavericks player Chandler Parsons tweeting a picture of a plane alluding to the news that DeAndre Jordan was being traded from the Los Angeles Clippers to Dallas.

From there, other players, from Chris Paul to Blake Griffin, jokingly tweeted emojis as what they were up to.

But it was Nike’s Jordan brand that dropped the mic. They tweeted out a picture of a goat emoji (shorthand for “greatest of all time”) and another tweet with six trophies signaling the number of championships he won.

— Jordan (@Jumpman23) July 8, 2015

Both tweets amassed more than 50,000 retweets and 35,000 favorites combined.

Nike’s Jordan brand is a client of the New York-based social media agency Laundry Service and that triggered CEO Jason Stein to go even further with it. So, along with his friend ESPN sports business analyst Darren Rovell, the duo kicked around ideas of what emojis define other famous NBA players.

For example, Dallas Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki is German so naturally he’s a the German flag emoji and Chicago Bulls player Derrick Rose appropriately is the rose emoji. The full chart is below:

Your handy NBA player emoji chart. Thanks to my followers & @247ls for the help to create it! pic.twitter.com/9r8ytEehom

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 9, 2015

What about Stein’s favorite, besides his crew’s Jordan’s goat emoji? “I’d go with Jerry West a.k.a. The Logo,” who is the trademark emoji. He told Digiday that a MLB version is coming soon.

Featured image via Flickr.