Of the 50,000 emoji tracked by Moji since its June launch, the most popular include a happy face with tears of joy, thumbs up, the Lul meme, a smiling Barack Obama, and crying Michael Jordan.

But Jordan — who sobbed as he spoke about his friend he called a "little brother"— also delivered a bit of levity by joking about the "Crying Jordan" meme that became a viral sensation online ...