NYTimes.com: N.B.A. Epic for the Ages

[boutons_deux]

In a World of Games, an N.B.A. Epic for the Ages


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 uva game, it was a uva 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 le.

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. les 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...?from=homepage

[wut]

Anyone else feel like it's only an epic game because it was a team the NBA/media wanted to win?

You look at the games the league labels unforgettable and it's games like Fisher's 3 in San Antonio and Allen's 3 in Miami...but not the many games where guys like Manu, Green, Horry, Kerr, SJax, JJ, Sean etc. etc. etc. were hitting huge 3s for game winners in playoff series after playoff series for a decade. Sure enough (outside last year) the Spurs never needed a 3 to win a finals series...but there have been plenty of epic Spurs games in the playoffs that meant winning a championship was inevitable going against a weak eastern team in the finals.

To me the constant talk about game 6 is just the media gloating about their wet dream finally coming true...someone finally upsetting the Spurs when it hurt the most. To me it's just sad because they call this an epic game....a game of two superstars in their prime, and an all-star in his prime with home-court advantage vs one all-star in their prime and two superstars in the twilight of their careers. It doesn't sound like an epic game, it sounds like an uneven match.

[ThaBigFundamental21]

Anyone else feel like it's only an epic game because it was a team the NBA/media wanted to win?

You look at the games the league labels unforgettable and it's games like Fisher's 3 in San Antonio and Allen's 3 in Miami...but not the many games where guys like Manu, Green, Horry, Kerr, SJax, JJ, Sean etc. etc. etc. were hitting huge 3s for game winners in playoff series after playoff series for a decade. Sure enough (outside last year) the Spurs never needed a 3 to win a finals series...but there have been plenty of epic Spurs games in the playoffs that meant winning a championship was inevitable going against a weak eastern team in the finals.

To me the constant talk about game 6 is just the media gloating about their wet dream finally coming true...someone finally upsetting the Spurs when it hurt the most. To me it's just sad because they call this an epic game....a game of two superstars in their prime, and an all-star in his prime with home-court advantage vs one all-star in their prime and two superstars in the twilight of their careers. It doesn't sound like an epic game, it sounds like an uneven match.

That's what makes it all the worse tbh. Our 37 year old PF almost willed us to victory over the "new GOAT." Seriously lets sit back and think for a minute. Tim Duncan was 37 years old last season. Lebron, 27/28 and that was Lebron's biggest punch??? It took a complete collapse by the Spurs to lose that damn series. Imagine if Timmy was 28 years old in that series. He would have all over Lebron and the Heat! It just makes you question why Lebron hasn't won more. Physically Lebron is second to none. But what is wrong in that guys head? He has never had the killer instinct of MJ, or even Kobe. He is soft.

But you are right. Anytime you turn on ESPN and the Spurs are playing, all they can talk about is the "Game 6 Collapse." They in love it. It's all you hear. They play their stupid segment of game 6 over and over and over. Bill Simmons climaxes in his pants on live air. I hate ESPN.

[Bill_Brasky]

Not to mention Bosh raping Danny on the last shot of the game and not getting called for it. The other night someone tapped Ray Allen on a last second three against the Hawks and they called it.

[TampaDude]

Obviously, the Heat had a better than 1.5% chance of winning. 28 seconds is an ETERNITY in the NBA. I wonder if the premature setup of the "Spurs Championship Celebration" was specifically aimed at motivating the Heat to win and the Spurs to relax.

Also, Ray Allen traveled before he shot the game-tying 3. Spurs in 6. 2013.

[Budkin]

Most gut wrenching loss in our history. Only a le this year will heal it.

[DMC]

Putting the dots after NBA is annoying.

Pretending they didn't have overtime and game 7 to get it done is smoke a mirrors. So they tied the game. It was won in overtime because people stopped performing. They also had a chance to win it at home. Everyone talks about that one play, but I can name many different moments where the Spurs had opportunities and didn't capitalize on them.

It wasn't a 6 game series.

[HarlemHeat37]

Manu has been killed for his play and deservedly so..Parker hasn't received nearly as much blame as he should have, but whatever, at least he was good early in the series and made some clutch shots in game 6..ultimately, it falls on the coach, the man that doesn't get blamed by the mainstream media and non-Spurs fans, the man that everybody is afraid to question..

The man that took Duncan out at the end of game 6.. the man that kept running Parker isos against Lebron and kept running pick&rolls against the best pick&roll defense in the league in games 6 and 7, rather than forcing it to Duncan down low or to Leonard in the post against Chalmers/Cole..

[elmanutres]

The is this, is it july or some ? stop posting game 6 and 7 threads. Getting sick of reading the same articles and posts from half a year ago. I swear we could win back to back for the next 2 years and this forum would still be 80% '13 finals threads

[lefty]

Manu


Waiter : " uh so 8 turnovers ? you "

[TampaDude]

The is this, is it july or some ? stop posting game 6 and 7 threads. Getting sick of reading the same articles and posts from half a year ago. I swear we could win back to back for the next 2 years and this forum would still be 80% '13 finals threads

...and .4 threads...and Manu fouling Dirk threads...and Barry got fouled but no call threads...and refs helped OKC win the WCF threads...did I miss any?

[Skull-1]

Manu


Waiter : " uh so 8 turnovers ? you "

Bwahahahahahahhaha!!!

[elmanutres]

...and .4 threads...and Manu fouling Dirk threads...and Barry got fouled but no call threads...and refs helped OKC win the WCF threads...did I miss any?

it's why i don't come here for basketball talk anymore. I just come along to have a little fun downstairs but that's it. nba reddit is where it's at for real bball talk

[dallasmaverickslose]

ty article