boutons_deux
12-26-2013, 09:14 AM
In a World of Games, an N.B.A. Epic for the Ages
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/12/14/sports/basketball/14iht-srspgame14-le-bron-james/14iht-srspgame14-le-bron-james-articleLarge.jpg
LeBron James was on the winning end of Game 6 of the N.B.A. Finals in June in Miami, what he called ‘‘by far the best game I’ve ever been a part of.’’
Games, games, so many games. From January to December. All over the planet. In so many sports.
But if you want to single out just one for drama and global reach in 2013 it is difficult to get past June 18 in Miami.
“It was a helluva game, it was a helluva game,” repeated Gregg Popovich, the coach who lost it and still can’t stop thinking about it.
The winners were not about to argue.
“It was by far the best game I’ve ever been a part of,” said LeBron James, a star of the game. “The ups and downs, the roller-coaster, the emotions, good and bad, throughout the whole game.”
Game 6 of the National Basketball Association Finals, with its high stakes and well-established cast, was quality entertainment from start to finish. But memory banks are better at storing highlights than 48 minutes of action plus overtime. What lingers, and will continue to linger, is the tail end of regulation, a time when Miami Heat fans were leaving the arena and officials were bustling about and preparing for a San Antonio Spurs victory ceremony.
“We’d seen the championship board already out there, the yellow tape,” James said. “And you know, that’s why you play the game to the final buzzer.”
James, perhaps the world’s best athlete, had — after an underwhelming start — played a fourth quarter true to his talent. At one momentum-shifting stage he blocked a Tim Duncan shot with a flourish and then scored past Duncan at the other end. He was taking responsibility and shot after shot, and would finish with 32 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
But as the final minute of regulation play began, James returned temporarily to earth, turning the ball over twice as the Spurs took a 94-89 lead with 28.2 seconds remaining after a free throw by Manu Ginobili.
An analytics company later calculated that at this stage, the Heat had a 1.5 percent chance of winning, and their chances presumably dropped below that when James’s 3-point shot on their next possession missed the rim entirely and thudded off the backboard.
But the Spurs, on the brink of their fifth championship with a 3-2 lead in the series, could not find a way to snatch the rebound, a task made trickier with Duncan, their leading rebounder, out of the game. Instead, Dwyane Wade and the Heat managed to get the ball back to James, who made this 3-pointer, cutting San Antonio’s lead to 2 points with 20 seconds left.
If Kahwi Leonard, the Spurs’s star rookie, had made both his free throws on the next possession, San Antonio might still be celebrating and James might still be dealing with chatter about how he too rarely wins the big one. Instead, Leonard made only the second one, which left the Heat within one 3-pointer of forcing overtime and put Duncan out of the game again, as Poppovich, true to his habits, put players in the game who could defend the 3-point line most effectively.
James missed again, but the Spurs could still not find a way to get a rebound. Chris Bosh outleaped Ginobili and then flicked the ball to Ray Allen, who had smoothly backed into position. Allen leaped and released, with the Spurs star Tony Parker firmly planted in front of him after a late arrival.
The former N.B.A. star Rick Barry has since commented that Allen should have been called for a traveling violation for moving his pivot foot after catching the ball. But there would be no whistle amid the pandemonium in Miami, and Wade was waiting and watching under the rim.
“When he shot it, I was looking at the ball and I said, ‘Oh my God. That’s going in,”’ he recalled. “It was kind of like I couldn’t believe it in a sense, but also, ‘Oh my God, it’s going in.’ When it went in, it’s new life.”
Which ultimately meant something closer to the contrary to the Spurs, as this keepsake of a game turned — in the course of 28.2 seconds — into a ball and chain that some of them kept dragging. The Heat won, 103-100, in overtime and two days later, with the series tied, won the decisive Game 7 and the title.
Popovich said he thought about the Game 6 particulars every day of the off-season. Ginobili said he asked waiters in restaurants during his summer vacation to stop bringing up the finals.
Parker has plenty of money, plenty of trophies, including three N.B.A. titles with San Antonio and the European championship he won with France in September. But Game 6 — the game of the year — is a special burden.
“It’s obviously going to hurt until I die,” Parker told ESPN in September. “I’ll be 95 years old and dying and I’ll be like, ‘Oh, Game 6.”’
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/sports/basketball/in-a-world-of-games-an-nba-epic-for-the-ages.html?from=homepage
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/12/14/sports/basketball/14iht-srspgame14-le-bron-james/14iht-srspgame14-le-bron-james-articleLarge.jpg
LeBron James was on the winning end of Game 6 of the N.B.A. Finals in June in Miami, what he called ‘‘by far the best game I’ve ever been a part of.’’
Games, games, so many games. From January to December. All over the planet. In so many sports.
But if you want to single out just one for drama and global reach in 2013 it is difficult to get past June 18 in Miami.
“It was a helluva game, it was a helluva game,” repeated Gregg Popovich, the coach who lost it and still can’t stop thinking about it.
The winners were not about to argue.
“It was by far the best game I’ve ever been a part of,” said LeBron James, a star of the game. “The ups and downs, the roller-coaster, the emotions, good and bad, throughout the whole game.”
Game 6 of the National Basketball Association Finals, with its high stakes and well-established cast, was quality entertainment from start to finish. But memory banks are better at storing highlights than 48 minutes of action plus overtime. What lingers, and will continue to linger, is the tail end of regulation, a time when Miami Heat fans were leaving the arena and officials were bustling about and preparing for a San Antonio Spurs victory ceremony.
“We’d seen the championship board already out there, the yellow tape,” James said. “And you know, that’s why you play the game to the final buzzer.”
James, perhaps the world’s best athlete, had — after an underwhelming start — played a fourth quarter true to his talent. At one momentum-shifting stage he blocked a Tim Duncan shot with a flourish and then scored past Duncan at the other end. He was taking responsibility and shot after shot, and would finish with 32 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
But as the final minute of regulation play began, James returned temporarily to earth, turning the ball over twice as the Spurs took a 94-89 lead with 28.2 seconds remaining after a free throw by Manu Ginobili.
An analytics company later calculated that at this stage, the Heat had a 1.5 percent chance of winning, and their chances presumably dropped below that when James’s 3-point shot on their next possession missed the rim entirely and thudded off the backboard.
But the Spurs, on the brink of their fifth championship with a 3-2 lead in the series, could not find a way to snatch the rebound, a task made trickier with Duncan, their leading rebounder, out of the game. Instead, Dwyane Wade and the Heat managed to get the ball back to James, who made this 3-pointer, cutting San Antonio’s lead to 2 points with 20 seconds left.
If Kahwi Leonard, the Spurs’s star rookie, had made both his free throws on the next possession, San Antonio might still be celebrating and James might still be dealing with chatter about how he too rarely wins the big one. Instead, Leonard made only the second one, which left the Heat within one 3-pointer of forcing overtime and put Duncan out of the game again, as Poppovich, true to his habits, put players in the game who could defend the 3-point line most effectively.
James missed again, but the Spurs could still not find a way to get a rebound. Chris Bosh outleaped Ginobili and then flicked the ball to Ray Allen, who had smoothly backed into position. Allen leaped and released, with the Spurs star Tony Parker firmly planted in front of him after a late arrival.
The former N.B.A. star Rick Barry has since commented that Allen should have been called for a traveling violation for moving his pivot foot after catching the ball. But there would be no whistle amid the pandemonium in Miami, and Wade was waiting and watching under the rim.
“When he shot it, I was looking at the ball and I said, ‘Oh my God. That’s going in,”’ he recalled. “It was kind of like I couldn’t believe it in a sense, but also, ‘Oh my God, it’s going in.’ When it went in, it’s new life.”
Which ultimately meant something closer to the contrary to the Spurs, as this keepsake of a game turned — in the course of 28.2 seconds — into a ball and chain that some of them kept dragging. The Heat won, 103-100, in overtime and two days later, with the series tied, won the decisive Game 7 and the title.
Popovich said he thought about the Game 6 particulars every day of the off-season. Ginobili said he asked waiters in restaurants during his summer vacation to stop bringing up the finals.
Parker has plenty of money, plenty of trophies, including three N.B.A. titles with San Antonio and the European championship he won with France in September. But Game 6 — the game of the year — is a special burden.
“It’s obviously going to hurt until I die,” Parker told ESPN in September. “I’ll be 95 years old and dying and I’ll be like, ‘Oh, Game 6.”’
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/12/14/sports/basketball/in-a-world-of-games-an-nba-epic-for-the-ages.html?from=homepage