Was Kawhi Leonard's buzzer beater the best game killer in sports history?
Coming in the same playoffs as Portland’s Damian Lillard’s 37-foot heave to eliminate the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kawhi Leonard’s four-bounce buzzer beater on Sunday night will live on as one of basketball’s greatest buzzer beaters. What else are the greatest moments that occurred as the clock struck zero? We have five (along with some honorable mentions) to conjure memories of the times when nobody could quite believe what they had just seen.
1) “The Minneapolis Miracle”, 14 January 2018
In nine years the Minnesota Vikings had won a total of zero playoff games. And it took a miracle for them to snap that streak. Minnesota trailed 24-23 with 10 seconds left, no timeouts remaining and the ball spotted at their own 39-yard-line. To keep the clock from expiring, quarterback Case Keenum found sure-handed wideout Stefon Diggs, who intended to catch the ball and immediately run out of bounds to stop the clock. New Orleans Saints safety Marcus Williams inexplicably ducked – presumably to try and knock Diggs down in-bounds – but accidentally tripped teammate Ken Crawley, the only other Saints player in position to make a tackle. Diggs scampered the remaining 35 yards untouched for the winning touchdown as time expired.
The eventual Super Bowl champion Eagles demolished Minnesota in the ensuing week’s NFC championship game, but “Minneapolis Miracle” remains a fond memory for the fans of a team that still haven’t gone to the Super Bowl since 1976.
Honorable mention:“The Tackle”, Super Bowl XXIV Rams-Titans, 30 January 2000
Tackling may be the most essential skill in football, so the play known as “The Tackle” is worth mentioning, Rams linebacker Mike Jones’s last-ditch wrapping of Titans wide receiver Kevin Dyson as time expired ended one of the greatest Super Bowls of all-time.
2) Kris Jenkins’s buzzer beater to lead Villanova over UNC, 2016 NCAA tournament championship, 4 April 2016
The American public’s obsession with March Madness isn’t solely due to the prospect of winning an office gambling pool. The NCAA tournament buzzer beater remains one of sport’s most captivating moments, and Villanova’s Kris Jenkins delivered a classic in the 2016 national title game. One possession after North Carolina guard Marcus Paige hit perhaps the greatest shot in NCAA history to tie a game, Villanova had 4.7 seconds to make a shot to win the national title and prevent the game from going to overtime.
Most audience members would have likely guessed that Villanova guard Ryan Arcidiacono, the senior leader who owned the school record with 143 games started, would take the final shot. Instead, the senior feigned driving to the hoop before scooping the ball to Jenkins, the team’s leading threepoint shooter, who drained his shot from over 25 feet away. The shot secured Villanova’s second national title and first since 1984-85.
Honorable mention: Christian Laettner, Duke to beat Kentucky, 1992 East Regional Final, 28 March 1992
It’s the one nicknamed “The Shot” and may still be the most recognizable moment in the history of college basketball. Laettner was college basketball’s most polarizing player, reviled by so many as the apparent posterboy of Duke’s superiority but widely considered the game’s best player (even on a team with Grant Hill). The technique on the 1992 East Regional Final’s game-winner remains flawless, even for those who despise the Blue Devils.
3) Joe Carter’s walk-off home run wins the World Series, Game 6 of the 1993 World Series, 23 October 1993
When Blue Jays announcer Tom Cheek bellowed “Touch ‘em all, Joe! You’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life!” he was speaking the truth. Not that Toronto slugger Joe Carter was incapable of hitting another clutch homer, but that it was impossible for anybody to smash a more significant
home run than Carter had just hit.
With feared closer Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams pitching, the Phillies were just two outs away from forcing Game 7. Carter approached the plate with two runners on base against Williams, known as much for his erratic control as his high-octane fastball. After waving at a breaking ball to put him on the verge of a strikeout, Carter cranked Williams’s next pitch over the leftfield wall to complete only the second walk-off home run to win a World Series. Carter’s homer secured Toronto’s second championship in a row, but the franchise is still looking for another title 26 seasons later. Honorable mention: David Freese saves the Cardinals’ season, Game 6 of
The Cardinals were one strike away from their season ending to the Texas Rangers until St Louis native David Freese clubbed a triple over rightfielder Nelson Cruz’s head to tie the game. Two innings later, the hometown hero hit a walk-off home run to force Game 7. Eight years and three teams later, Freese receives a standing ovation anytime he returns to play the Cardinals.
4) “The Shot”, Michael Jordan’s buzzer beater over Craig Ehlo, Game 5 of the 1989 Eastern Conference playoffs first round, 7 May 1989
Just about every basketball-obsessed youngster has recreated Jordan’s shot over Ehlo in front of their bedroom mirror. The 1989 Bulls finished a mediocre 47-35 and lost all six of their regular-season meetings to the opposing Cavaliers, who finished the season tied for the league’s second-best record.
Jordan entered the deciding Game 5 having scored 94 points over the prior two games and 42 points to his name that evening, With three seconds remaining and his team trailing 100-99, Jordan darted to the free-throw line while being trailed by Ehlo. As Jordan rose for the game-winner, he sensed Ehlo closing in to block his shot, triggering one of the most iconic plays in NBA history – a mid-air pump fake that left Ehlo empty-handed as the future hall of famer downed his shot to clinch the series. Of the countless shots that would define Jordan’s historic career, this one remains known as “The Shot.”
Honorable mention: Morris Peterson’s mid-air miracle, 30 March 2007
This came in a insignificant lateseason game between the Raptors and Wizards, but must be mentioned for its sheer improbability as well as the hilarity of each announcing team’s reaction.
5) “The Play”, Cal run through the band to defeat Stanford, 20 November 1982
It was a play that secured nothing but bragging rights between the rival schools, but it remains the most bizarre and hilarious ending in the history of college football.
Leading 20-19 with just four seconds remaining, Stanford kicker Mark Harmon squibbed a kickoff that Cal’s Kevin Moen caught around his own 45-yard-line. After two laterals, the Stanford band thought that Cal’s Dwight Garner had been tackled to end the game, so they rushed the field to celebrate their (apparent) victory over the rival Bears.
Except that the ball was still in play. Four Cal players charged down the right as the band and cheerleaders stormed the field while the Stanford defense tried, unsuccessfully, to make a gameending tackle. Rivalry games often deliver madness, and it’s a play still annually celebrated in Berkeley (even if the Bears haven’t defeated their rivals since 2009).
Honorable mention:Michigan State beats Michigan after a botched fake punt, 7 October 2015
All Michigan needed to do was complete a successful snap to its punter and they would have secured a win over their rival. That didn’t happen.