Archive for the ‘Pick-and-Pop’ Category

If you ranked the many compelling story lines of this year’s NBA Finals, the play of Spurs shooting guard Danny Green might or might not be No. 1, but it’d definitely be top five. Green’s play in the series has been nothing short of historic — in last night’s Game 5, his six made threes vaulted him past Ray Allen for the all-time record for treys in a Finals series, already beating Ray’s mark of 22 by three, and in one game fewer, no less. (Five more threes in the series and he’d tie Reggie Miller’s all-time record of for most threes made in an entire postseason run, with his 58 in 2000.) Green leads the Spurs with 18 points a game for the series, and is now shooting 57 percent from the field and a mind-boggling 66 percent from three.

Throw in some fine defense, including a couple exceptionally impressive defensive stops in transition during Game 5 on the likes of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, and a handful of rebounds a game, and it’s entirely possible that should the Spurs close out the series in Miami, that Danny Green will be the recipient of 2013′s Bill Russel Trophy for Finals MVP. It won’t be a no-brainer — Tim Duncan will have the all-around, two-way numbers and the sentimental vote on his side, and Tony Parker has the reputation of being the team’s most important player and some very impressive highlight plays to his credit. But given the relatively unprecedented nature of Green’s hot shooting in this series, which has started to extend to Stephen Curry-like range beyond the arc, assuming he can avoid pulling a John Starks in the last game or two, he’s going to have a case, at the very least.

If he did win, the word “unprecedented” would apply to more than just Green’s shooting statistics. In some sports, the postseason is frequently marked by unlikely hot streaks or excellent single-game performances that result in non-star, role-player types taking home playoff top honors. Think David Eckstein or Scott Brosius in baseball, or Dexter Jackson or Larry Brown in football. But in basketball, that doesn’t ever really happen. If you were to do a Sporcle quiz on NBA Finals MVPs, it probably wouldn’t take more than a couple minutes, because the winners are generally the guys you expect. Michael Jordan won that trophy during all six of the Bulls’ title runs, Hakeem won the two with the Rockets, Shaq won the first three for the Lakers in the 21st century and Kobe won the next two. Over the course of a series, the most valuable players generally tend to end up the most valuable players.

This, of course, would not account for Danny Green. Before going into this series, Green was seen as little more than the latest success story of the Great Spurs Machine, a franchise who seemed to systematically pump out wings like Green who could shoot threes, play defense, know his role and generally not do anything to hurt the ballclub, just like Bruce Bowen, Roger Mason Jr., Gary Neal, and so on. He averaged 10.5 points on 45 percent FG and 43 percent 3PT with a 14.1 PER, numbers good enough to make him a worthwhile rotation player, but certainly nothing that would have him in All-Star discussions. Not to mention it was unlikely he was ever even going to get that far, seemingly washing out of the league after one season in Cleveland, a former second-round pick coveted by nobody, before being rescued by San Antonio and set back on the righteous path. Hell, he’s still not even the default “Danny Green” on Wikipedia.

Compare that resume to those from the list of previous NBA Finals MVPs, and the differences are pretty staggering. Of the 19 retired players to have received Finals MVP honors, all but two are currently enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame, and of the nine active players to have won, all but one are a lock for the Hall immediately upon retirement, including Green’s teammates, the three-time winner Duncan and the one-time winner Parker. There are no role players, no one who you’d look at and go “Really? How the hell did that guy end up winning over all those other guys on his team?”

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I fear that because it wasn’t technically a game-winning shot, history might not end up acknowledging Tony Parker’s bucket last night with 5.2 seconds to go in Game 1 of the 2013 Finals as one of the greatest shots in NBA playoff history. Make no mistake — it absolutely was. True, the Spurs were already up two with the ball, and even an offensive rebound at that point would’ve been just as deadly to the Heat as a made basket. But if he misses (with three Miami players in rebounding position), the Heat have five seconds and LeBron James to make up a two-point lead, and there’s little doubt in my mind they would have done it. Even if they were already leading, I have no issues with calling Parker’s shot a game-winner.

And holy hell, what a shot. The number of factors that added to the degree of difficulty are basically countless, but let’s see if we can count them anyway:

1. The shot was taken with less than a fraction of a second remaining on the shot clock, close enough to a violation that even though he appeared to get it off on time, had it been ruled no good on the floor, it’s uncertain if that decision would have been overturned on replay.
2. Even with time dwindling down, Parker had to go right, into his defender’s body, then pivot left for his leaning jumper, before just barely get the ball off underneath the jumping defender’s outstretched arm.
3. That defender was LeBron James, arguably the best (and definitely the toughest) perimeter defender in the entire NBA.
4. This all happened after a wildly broken play resulted in Parker dribbling manically around the right wing, at one point even losing his footing and slipping to the floor, but somehow maintaining his dribble throughout.
5. It was the final seconds of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, on the opposing team’s home court. Worth mentioning.

There are probably a whole lot more minute factors that I’m missing, but those are most of the big ‘uns.

So yeah, it was an absolutely breathtaking moment in NBA Finals history, one that deserves to be anthologized and replayed to death and should undoubtedly make an appearance in next year’s pregame Finals history montage. (Hell, ESPN’s Tom Haberstroh has already pieced together an Oral History of the shot from all the postgame comments from players and coaches involved, and it might not be the last one published on the subject matter before all is said and done.) It’s enough to make your skin crawl with anticipation for Game 2 on Sunday night.

All that’s missing now for the shot it is a nickname, a catchy, easily identifiable, and preferably alliterative nom de legend for it to be forever known as. I don’t pretend to have the final answer on the matter, and really, stuff like this is often only decided over time, but I’d like to at least get the ball bouncing around the rim on the discussion. Some opening suggestions:

1. The Broken Banker
Feel like you should have some sort of allusion to the fact that the play leading up to Parker’s jumper was a complete disaster, and “Broken Banker” basically gets at that, while succinctly describing the shot and throwing in a little alliteration to boot. It doesn’t cleanly describe the shot or play for someone who doesn’t already know about it, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as opportunities to relive the play in all its gory detail should be treasured by all (assuming you weren’t rooting for the Heat for some reason).

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