Cam Newton reveals what led to famous meme with N'Keal Harry

BOSTON -- From a football standpoint, Cam Newton's Patriots career was forgettable. But on the internet, it will live on forever.

In a world where we've all come to learn to communicate by way of moving images instead of text, Newton's expression of shock, doubt, and utter disbelief while sliding down a bench and staring at teammate N'Keal Harry might already be in the GIF Hall of Fame, if such a thing existed.

The sideline moment was captured by CBS cameras on Sept. 27, 2020, and it's lived in internet lore ever since without much explanation.

Yet Newton finally explained the genesis of that moment on his YouTube show this week:

Bro! Me and N'Keal was on the sideline talking about basketball. N'Keal was saying in high school, he averaged 40 points. It was something ridiculous. I said, 'Bro!'

First off, he's foreign. He's like Haitian or Trinidadian. He moved over here and went to Arizona. So I'm like, 'Bro, none of your bloodline is telling me that you're a hooper.' Not to say that people don't hoop, but it's not giving me hooper vibes.

So when he said it, like, 'Real talk, bro, I averaged 40 points in high school,' I said, 'Bruuuuhhhh, stop lying. Like, stop lying, bruh. Who the f--- were you playing in high school? And why isn't this s--- documented? Like come on, bruh. Come on! 'Cuz if you was playing, you came down here today in Atlanta, Georgia, you ain't gonna average no 40. And if you did, you woulda went straight to the league.'

So when he said that s---, that's the reaction that I got. I was like bruh, stop lying. Please.

Newton added: "You can tell by my damn reaction that he was lying. There you go. After all the confusion, the motherf----- lied about how much he averaged -- and that was the thing, he said he averaged 40. Not 'I had a couple games with 40,' [but] I averaged. I said, bro.

Harry -- who was born in Toronto before moving to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as a baby and then moving to Arizona as a toddler -- did play basketball in high school, and fortunately, his stats still live online at MaxPreps. They're not quite 40-points-a-night good, but they're solid.

In his junior year in 2014-15, Harry averaged 22 points with 10.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.1 blocks per game. The next year, he averaged 21 points per game with 10.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 0.8 blocks per game.

So, Harry was a legitimate hooper, despite Newton's doubts. Just not a 40-a-night hooper, like Harry claimed.

Thankfully he did though, because it created a meme. A wonderful, universally applicable, highly relatable meme.