You’ve got Russel Westbrook memes, but my generation grew up with Michael Jordan. We were spoiled. You think Lebron is King. We watched Kobe Bryant take Moesha to prom and pull off 360 dunks. We watched Bo Jackson play football and baseball.

As spoiled as we were, my father got to see Ali, live. He got to listen to Sammy Davis Jr. and James Brown- in real time. When Sanders talk about unfairness in 2016 Vermont, you can’t help but to laugh. Try 1960s Alabama where bodies hanged from a tree. Where there was no Twitter to post a viral picture and hashtag. Instead, you had Ali, Davis, and Brown, using their popularity to improve race relations.

I wanted to spend this whole blank space talking about the Thriller-In-Manilla. Then move on to his greatest fight- Clay vs Liston. I could spend ten pages talking about how magnificent his wins were. I could relish every fight and every speech. What Ali did was give you an African American man to cheer for. He was honest about not wanting to fight a pointless war. He saw right through the politics of killing someone he didn’t know.

Cassius Clay made it okay to question things, but my personal favorite was his braggadocious monologues. That’s why I’m so definitive on the internet. It’s not for the meek. Say what you have to say and hit send. Ali had the goods to back it up, but he gives the rest of us the courage to get better. It’s why we laugh at every fake Mayweather fight. It’s why we pray Duncan stays in the game.

You don’t get many legends. You get rabbit litters of Kris Jenner. When someone like Ali comes along soak in every word and memorize each uppercut. They’re like comets. They don’t around often.

★ “I’m so mean I make medicine sick.”