GQ Magazine did incredibly important work and published an oral history on the day Brian Windhorst landed in meme immortality.
As everyone may remember, Windhorst appeared one day on ESPN’s First Take. Windhorst spent the morning openly pondering, “What is going on in Utah?” after a small trade that caught the NBA insider’s eye. The Utah Jazz appeared to be beginning to tear it all down, and as history reminds us, that’s exactly what happened. The Jazz eventually dealt All-Star Rudy Gobert away to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Donovan Mitchell also exited the franchise and went to the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was a brand new day in Salt Lake City after it all subsided. It all can be traced back to Windhorst and his antics on the popular ESPN debate show.
The publication captured Windhorst’s day at ESPN studios that day. It included interviews with ESPN producer Sam Tonucci and on-screen personalities Christine Williamson and Freddie Coleman.
One amusing detail? Apparently, the NBA insider is a big fan of the chairs on First Take. When Windhorst made his now famous hand gestures, the insider said that was due to the comfy chair he was in.
Windhorst told GQ:
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.
Brian Windhorst later added that he could pull out his hand gestures again but isn’t willing to commit to a serious enough bit.
People ask me about it all the time. They want the finger technique thing. They want to post it. I don’t do it a lot because I don’t want it to kind of be a thing, but I’ll occasionally do it.
