Viewers Bust Out Tons of Great Sports Memes in Honor of John King's Dominant Performance on CNN: TRAINA THOUGHTS

CNN's John King has dominated his maps, and sports fans are impressed.

1. With all due respect to the MAC, which kicked off its football season with six games Wednesday night, the sports world has taken a back seat to politics this week as we still await the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Many of you (and me) have spent more time this week with John King than anyone else in the world. The CNN chief national correspondent has spent endless hours dominating his touch-screen maps in the same way Michael Jordan used to dominate the NBA.

King rattles off numbers and counties like a machine, while Wolf Blitzer keeps interrupting him and he never gets flustered, never flubs a line and never loses his cool.

And he's been doing it since Tuesday with very little rest.

Even Twitter and sports fans—the two toughest and angriest crowds out there—have been thoroughly impressed with King.

The sports-related memes, GIFS, photos tweets and videos honoring King's tremendous work have been on point.

john king when the election is over pic.twitter.com/NEFcJ7wYhN

— Harry Lyles Jr. (@harrylylesjr) November 4, 2020

John King during a commercial break: pic.twitter.com/QXiN7EjZqA

— Scott Changnon (@ScottyChags) November 4, 2020

John King at 2am on CNN’s projection board describing 26 different scenarios for what happens in Pennsylvania pic.twitter.com/kHEqsmEYrj

— Zan Johnson (@zanjohnson2) November 4, 2020

John King when CNN pulled him out the game pic.twitter.com/Jc6hjvBAaM

— Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) November 5, 2020

John King when the camera finally pans off him for 5 minutes pic.twitter.com/znZode6y8d

— Jasmine (@JasmineLWatkins) November 4, 2020

I wonder if John King lights this kid up in touchscreen practice like MJ did to Scott Burrell pic.twitter.com/wPuv6sNjog

— Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) November 5, 2020

John King headed to the CNN set every 4 years to flex on all the other journalists and political pundits. pic.twitter.com/80nC6hI4tA

— David Ruffin (@ReallyJSanders) November 4, 2020

CNN's John King walking up to his election touchscreen this morning https://t.co/G0fTdme5eP

— Joe Kinsey (@JoeKinseyexp) November 4, 2020

CNN: Hey, we know you worked until 4am last night and haven’t slept a lot, but do you think you could come in and work the magic board again tod-

JOHN KING:pic.twitter.com/Tpwiyw0z5R

— Mike Beauvais (@MikeBeauvais) November 4, 2020

John King and Steve Kornacki pic.twitter.com/4iaopjBIo9

— Astead (@AsteadWH) November 4, 2020

John King when they finish tallying the votes pic.twitter.com/5PD3PdCxDn

— Aaron West (@oeste) November 4, 2020

2. Last word on the election: CNN needs to use the tweet below as inspiration and add ESPN's NFL PrimeTime music to its coverage.

The election coverage is so much better with NFL Primetime music 😂

(@soIoucity) pic.twitter.com/eY2kjBcVLY

— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) November 4, 2020

3. Great job here by Patrick Mahomes.

Patrick Mahomes asked the Chiefs to turn Arrowhead Stadium into an Election Day voting site, but the election board said no due to a lack of voting machines.

Instead of giving up, Mahomes bought new machines — splitting the "six-figure investment" with the Chiefs.

He gets it. pic.twitter.com/IfbUJ6zp0l

— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) November 4, 2020

Nice job here by the Steelers.

At the Allegheny County ballot counting site here in Pittsburgh, I can report that the Pittsburgh Steelers are buying dinner for all the workers here this evening.

— Paul Rigney (@PaulRRigney) November 4, 2020

4. Just want to send best wishes to everyone at ESPN. The network is expected to have massive layoffs Thursday, and if you've ever experienced a day with layoffs, whether you survive or not, you know it's truly horrible on every level. 

ESPN will begin to cut about 500 jobs starting today. The cuts will be a combination of about 300 layoffs and 200 open positions that won’t be filled, with remote production expected to be hit especially hard (@Ourand_SBJ).

Free to read: https://t.co/GQapYS4fmy pic.twitter.com/fMNH0PkOaT

— Sports Business Journal (@SBJ) November 5, 2020

5. This week's SI Media Podcast features an interview with the legendary Paul Heyman. The podcast started with Heyman's questioning me when I asked how he was doing. He then ripped me for writing that Bobby Heenan is the greatest wrestling manager of all time. Then we got into Heyman's role as Roman Reigns's special counsel and how that partnership came to be. The podcast ended with Heyman sharing behind-the-scenes details and insight into his famous "pipe bomb" on Vince McMahon.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.

6. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: As Michael Scott once showed us, you can try to declare things, but it doesn't really mean anything.

7. SPORTS VIDEO OF THE DAY: In honor of Thursday night's Packers-Niners game, here is Terrell Owens making one of the more impressive catches we've ever seen.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram