After more than two years of COVID-related lockdowns and restrictions, 2022 was a huge year for sports around the world. As the year draws to a close, EssentiallySports looks at some of the most iconic sporting moments of 2022 from a fan’s perspective and presents 22 awards for some of the biggest stars in world sports.

NBA superstar LeBron James wins the EssentiallySports’ Meme-Worthy Moment of the Year award. James became one of the most popular memes of the year 2022 for his actions off the court. Over the course of his career, James has been made into multiple memes by fans. However, it was for a completely different reason altogether this time and it caught fire only at the end of the year.

LeBron James was called out by fans

The Los Angeles Lakers did not make the playoffs last season. While watching the playoffs, James promised he would never miss the playoffs again. Despite this, the Lakers were off to a very poor start in the 2022-23 season. Adding salt to the wound, James was called out for lying to the fans and was made into a meme for his claims on the Migos.

Takeoff, a member of the Migos was tragically killed on November 1. LeBron James paid homage to the rapper during a press conference. While speaking about him, James claimed that he had been following the Migos since 2010. The four-time champion was also proud that he somewhat predicted the success of the Migos.

He said, “I was listening to those guys my first year with the Heat in 2010. You can ask any one of my teammates back then, they had no idea who the Migos was… I was like ‘I’m telling you these guys are next.” But the Migos’ first mixtape dropped only in 2011.

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While this could easily be a case of James mixing up the years, the fans were not ready to divulge that. They started calling him out for his lies and started sharing some of the statements from James over the years that they believe to be a lie. This unearthed another interesting claim by the Los Angeles Lakers superstar.

The birth of new a LeBron meme 

LeBron James once claimed he predicted NBA legend Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game against the Toronto Raptors. He stated that he had a feeling that Bryant would score 70 points before the game. The four-time MVP said, “I was at home watching the game and I said he was gonna…before the game even started, when I seen uhh, I said he was probably going to score 70 tonight. I don’t know what made me say that. My friends was with me and they was like okay. When he got to like 70, I was like he might as well go for 80 now.”

Fans could not fathom this claim by James. This gave birth to one of the most iconic memes in recent times. Fans started using the picture of James when he claimed about Bryant’s 81-point outburst and came up with claims of some of the most iconic events. Here are some of the memes from fans:

The fans used the full extent of their creativity with this one. And it doesn’t look like it will die down anytime soon. Any claim someone makes in the sports world, one can be sure to find this James meme in the comments.

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Interestingly, the 18-time all-star is aware of this meme and the fans were calling him a liar. Also, he was called out on his own show, The Shop, which is co-produced by James. During an appearance on the show, James was telling a story but NFL star Jalen Ramsey was not convinced. So he brought up the meme that was going around on social media. Everyone broke out laughing. But James maintained he always speaks the truth. The fans certainly don’t think so.

Important sporting moments of 2022

As the curtains close for the year, ES looked at 22 stories that grabbed the headlines of the sporting world in 2022. While some were funny, some were heartbreaking. Some of the moments include, tennis legend Serena Williams retiring, Bubba Wallace punching a fellow driver, NFL legend Tom Brady’s 40-day-retirement, soccer superstar Lionel Messi Argentina lifting the World Cup, and so on.

What is your favorite sporting moment of 2022? Let us know in the comments.