the football team at michael jordan’s alma mater, the university of north carolina tar heels, will wear jordan brand uniforms next season. michael jordan announced this at halftime of the tarheels’ big men’s basketball game on saturday against their arch rival (most important) the duke blue devils.
jordan reppin nc football (streeter lecka/getty image)
if u already know this, it’s probably thanks to (because of) the enigmatic words jordan spoke at the end of his short inspirational speech that have set the internet on fire
the ceiling is the roof
sara jane harris at sportingnews.com reported it like this
michael jordan has a new and rather confusing catch phrase.
rather, like pretty or quite, means to a certain degree or level. the degree depends on tone or context; in this example, rather means more confusing than normal. catch phrase is an easily recognized line often associated with a specific person.
a ceiling (thefinishingcompany.net)
the ceiling is the top of a room inside a building. the roof is the top of a building from the outside. they are different, but they are also often used interchangeably.
a roof
so if u are an efl student and jordan’s words sound redundant—u got it. that’s why everyone is cracking jokes.
let’s get one thing straight is a common phrase used to correct, clarify or emphasize.
🙂 fun elt practice🏚️ richyrocks english on youtube
obviously, the ceiling is the roof was going to get mashed up with the crying jordan meme.
fine pic.twitter.com/GS80OKnU28
— alex warneke (@alexwarneke) March 5, 2017
call it a night (or day) means stop working for the day.
When you’re the 🐐 but you screw up your speech #MJ #CeilingIsTheRoof pic.twitter.com/YOSnpjbJhy
— Lawrence Benedetto (@lawonthedraw) March 5, 2017
the emoji in the tweet above is a goat. goat in reference to mj is an acronym for greatest of all time. it’s a rather odd acronym, because in sports we also call someone who blows a big opportunity or loses a game through poor execution or inaction a goat. screw up means make a mistake.
a goat on a stump.
🙂 fun elt practice. richyrocks english on youtube
this observation is hypothetical i.e. second conditional.
Let's be real. If MJ came up to you and said "the ceiling is the roof" you'd be like… pic.twitter.com/SODIcif0Lu
— RisenX9 (@cooper_2318) March 5, 2017
the structure to express a hypothetical situation is if + past tense + modal auxiliary verb; in this case came up to u and said (past tense) and you’d be like (modal auxiliary–you’d=you would). be like is used to present dialogue. this is extremely common in internet communication.
for some social media users jordan’s new catchphrase has received too much attention.
#TheCeilingistheRoof has already gotten old and annoying
— noneya (@WM_j_MW) March 6, 2017
get old indicates a transformation or a process. get can be used the same way with many other adjectives, for example get tired, get hungry, get used to and get drunk. annoying is irritating, bothersome.
this one is from my instagram….
plead is desperately ask for.
most likely jordan wanted to say something like the sky is the limit. or this team has no ceiling to give the idea that tar heel football has enormous potential for next season. but he didn’t, and it looks like the ceiling is the roof will be around for awhile.
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