I Owe You an Apology. I Wasn't Really Familiar With Your Game

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66 YOU CAN'T FOOL ME. IAM FAMILIAR WITH YOUR GAME. SHAQUILLE O'NEAL ON APOLOGIZING FOR NOT BEING FAMILIAR WITH YOUR GAME B-R

FF I OWE YOU AN APOLOGY. I WASN'T REALLY FAMILIAR WITH YOUR GAME. Us after seeing Chick-fil-A handle multiple lines at once. JOHN H 2018 QuikTrip S

Miracle Nwoke November 26, 2022 - Me to Kylian Mbappe: I OWE YOU AN APOLOGY. I WASN'T REALLY FAMILIAR WITH YOUR GAME. SHAQ TO CHRISTIAN WOOD AFTER HIS 27-POINT PERFORMANCE VS. THE SPURS S

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ODDSbible ODDS BIBLE November 14, 2022. Man United fans to Messi after years of calling Ronaldo the GOAT 66 IOWE YOU AN APOLOGY. I WASN'T REALLY FAMILIAR WITH YOUR GAME. SHAQ TO CHRISTIAN WOOD AFTER HIS 27-POINT PERFORMANCE VS. THE SPURS ... S

WelBeast @WelBeast Oct 30, 2022 Dear Reiss Nelson, I owe you an apology, I wasn't really familiar with your game. Regards 114 Ibrahim Tchole @TcholeIbrahim Replying to @WelBeast 1 686 Me too... Arteta knows more than us GG I OWE YOU AN APOLOGY. I WASN'T REALLY FAMILIAR WITH YOUR GAME. SHAQ TO CHRISTIAN WOOD AFTER HIS 27-POINT PERFORMANCE VS. THE SPURS 12:07 PM . Oct 30, 2022 8,665 la ↑ ... : ... S

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About

I Owe You an Apology. I Wasn't Really Familiar With Your Game is an image macro of former basketball player Shaquille O'Neal captioned with the quote. Online, the image macro has been used as a reaction, often to bring apologies to sports players who've performed above expectations.

Origin

On January 14th, 2021, an NBA game between the basketball teams San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets took place. In the game, Houston Rockets player Christian Wood scored 27 points, leading former basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, who was interviewing the player post-game, to apologize for his earlier comments, saying that he "wasn't really familiar with his game." To this, Christian Wood replied, "Oh, man, you're a casual."

Following the interview, Twitter^[1] user @r0bato uploaded a clip of the exchange between O'Neil and Wood to Twitter, with the tweet gaining over 150 retweets and 1,100 likes in two years (shown below). Within two minutes, Twitter^[2] news account @TheNBACentral shared the clip, with the post gaining over 510,000 views, 630 retweets and 8,800 likes in two years.

Christian Wood called Shaq a 'casual' in his postgame interview lmaaooo pic.twitter.com/hs0e3HC2DE

— Rob Lopez (@r0bato) January 15, 2021

Later on January 14th, the Instagram news account @theScore posted a two-panel image macro of the exchange, with the post gaining over 58,700 likes in two years (shown below).

FF I OWE YOU AN APOLOGY. I WASN'T REALLY FAMILIAR WITH YOUR GAME. SHAQ TO CHRISTIAN WOOD AFTER HIS 27-POINT PERFORMANCE VS. THE SPURS GG OH MAN YOU'RE A CASUAL. CHRISTIAN WOOD RESPONDS TO SHAQ VIA NBA ON TNT S

Spread

The macro did not see widespread use as a reaction image until 2022. On May 7th, 2022, Twitter^[3] user @SorokaPlsHeal made the earliest discovered tweet using the image as a reaction, with the tweet gaining over 60 likes in one year (shown below, left). On July 1st, Twitter^[4] user @LALeBron23 used the image for a post about the basketball analyst Brian Windhorst, with the tweet gaining over 2,600 retweets and 27,900 likes in seven months (shown below, right).

A Atlanta Braves @Braves May 7, 2022 .@tdemeritte11 went ALL OUT for this catch! #ForTheA 3.YELICH 0-2 41 FRIED P:80 A 1 t 540 77 Replying to @Braves and @tdemeritte11 @ Travis Demeritte 66 IOWE YOU AN APOLOGY. I WASN'T REALLY FAMILIAR WITH YOUR GAME. The Acuñacorn - Its a Bubble Battle @SorokaPlsHeal 0-2 AAVES KIDS CLUB! - BRAVES.COM/KIDS SHAQ TO CHRISTIAN WOOD AFTER HIS 27-POINT PERFORMANCE VS. THE SPURS 9:15 PM - May 7, 2022 4,629 d : S

Fake @LALeBron23 Me to Brian Windhorst this off-season GG IOWE YOU AN APOLOGY. I WASN'T REALLY FAMILIAR WITH YOUR GAME. SHAQ TO CHRISTIAN WOOD AFTER HIS 27-POINT PERFORMANCE VS. THE SPURS 3:41 PM Jul 1, 2022 . : S

Throughout the second half of 2022, the reaction image saw further popularization online, primarily among sports fans who used it to comment on unexpectedly great performances by players. The spread of the reaction image was followed by edits. For example, in October 2022, a version of the macro recaptioned, "You owe me an apology, you tricked me," saw spread on Twitter^[5] (shown below, left). Also in late 2022, a reverse version of the macro reading, "You can't fool me. I am familiar with your game" was circulated (shown below, right).^[6]