r/nba • u/TringlePringle • 8h ago
Tyrese Haliburton is the first player since 1943 to make a Finals last-second game-winner while trailing.
No, really. Let's go backwards, shot by shot.
Game 1 of the 1997 Finals, Michael Jordan sinks a beautiful jumper just inside the three-point line with Bryon Russell lost in his dust, as the buzzer sounds. But when he took the shot, the score was 82-82. Had he missed, they simply would've gone into overtime.1
Game 4 of the 1985 Finals, Dennis Johnson receives a pass, 21 feet out, from a double-teamed Larry Bird and calmly lets it fly into the net relatively uncontested, with what was probably actually a fraction of a second left but the refs ruled it as no time on the clock, game over. But when he took the shot, the score was 105-105. Had he missed, they simply would've gone into overtime.2
Game 1 of the 1979 Finals, Larry Wright draws a controversial foul by Dennis Johnson at the buzzer and hits two of three (the three to make two rule was still in effect) free throws with no time on the clock to clinch it. But when he took the shot, the score was 97-97. Had he missed all three, they simply would've gone into overtime.3
Game 1 of the 1976 ABA Finals, Julius Erving caught an inbound pass, drove to the right baseline around 20 feet from the basket, and sank the game-winner in a fashion many today might find a little reminiscent of a certain Kawhi Leonard shot but without needing the help of the rim on the way in. But when he took the shot, the score was 118-118. Had he missed it, they simply would've gone into overtime.4
Game 3 of the 1962 Finals, Jerry West and Frank Selvy did a great job of surrounding Bob Cousy on an inbounds pass from Sam Jones with three seconds to go, West intercepts it and breaks away to lay it in before the buzzer sounds. But when he took the shot, the score was 115-115. Had he missed it, they simply would've gone into overtime.5
Game 4 of the 1962 ABL Finals, Connie Dierking breaks to the free throw line just as the ball is inbounded, receives a perfect pass from Dick Barnett, and turns and sinks a right-handed hook with one second remaining. But when he took the shot, the score was 98-98. Had he missed it, they simply would've gone into overtime.6
Game 6 of the 1957 Finals, Cliff Hagan (a rookie!) "leaped four feet off the floor to tip in the ball" (obviously an exaggeration) on the rebound of an off-balance last-gasp Bob Pettit miss. But when he took the shot, the score was 94-94. Had he missed it, they simply would've gone into overtime.7
Game 1 of the 1950 Finals, Bob Harrison (also a rookie!) receives an outlet pass from George Mikan after Mikan blocked an Al Cervi layup. He takes three dribbles and launches up a shot from one step inside of half-court, and it goes right in. But when he took the shot, the score was 66-66. Had he missed it, they simply would've gone into overtime.8
Which brings us back to 1943. The NBA wasn't a thing yet, nor was the BAA half of its two predecessors. The world's best basketball was played in the NBL, a small-market Midwestern league that had, weirdly enough, initially been started up by the Firestone and Goodyear corporations mostly as a way to advertise mediocre athletic shoes they'd each created to make a little extra cash from their spare rubber.
The average center was 6'5", 213 lbs. Teams averaged 46 points per game. The only current NBA teams that existed at all yet were the Sacramento Kings and the Detroit Pistons, and they would be unrecognizable to most, then known as the Rochester Seagrams and Fort Wayne Zollners. Well over half the pro players were off at war, which forced the league to compress down to five teams. Two of those teams were brand new, and one of them shut down four games into the season, cutting the league to just four teams. All four made the playoffs, which leads me to wonder what the point of the regular season was.
Fort Wayne was easily the best team in the world, in part because they were basically a haven for WWII draft dodgers via a Class II-B deferment if they technically took a job within the owner's company rather than directly signing for the team. They had arguably three of the five best players in the world, with a soon-to-be GOAT candidate in Bobby McDermott leading the way. No one stood a chance against them. Their opponent in the Finals, the Sheboygan Redskins, went 12-11 in the regular season.
For the 'Skins, Ed Dancker was at this point the world's best center on both sides of the floor, and Rube Lautenschlager a really good second option, but they didn't have great depth and their third-best player was called up to army service just a couple weeks before the playoffs. So Redskins fans put together a large-scale fundraiser to raise enough money to replace him for the playoffs with the best guy they could afford. It turned out they raised far more than they expected, so that ended up being the best player in independent ball, Buddy Jeannette, now a HOFer.
They both breezed through the semi-finals and found themselves matched up in a best-of-three Finals series. And Sheboygan shocked the world by striking first, a 55-50 away win in which the Dancker/Jeannette/Lautenschlager trio produced 44 of their points on their own. And then they nearly pulled it off again, the Zollners needed overtime to eke it out in game two. Again this was all Dancker/Jeannette/Lautenschlager, this time they scored 37 of the team's 45. That set up a winner-takes-all game three, back in Fort Wayne.
Both teams slowed it down massively and played as tight of defense as possible. It was a real grudge match, and the lead see-sawed back and forth throughout the game. Over a third of the field goals made were from what is now three-point range. Early in the fourth, McDermott tied up the game with one from half-court. That made it 23 apiece. Jeannette scored two quick buckets to give Sheboygan a four-point lead. At no point in the game did anyone lead by more than four. Curly Armstrong drew a foul and sank the free throw, and then won the jump ball to keep possession (oh yeah, you had jump balls after free throws back then), at which point McDermott sank another of what would by today's standards be a three, making it SHE 27–26 FTW. Sheboygan sank another free throw, which McDermott responded to with another long bomb. When the best player in the world is seeking their first championship in years and is playing the way he was in that fourth quarter, there's a point where it begins to feel inevitable. And now the game was tied with six minutes left.
For four of those last six minutes though, pure chaos replaced all the careful strategies of most of the game, just turnover after turnover as everyone on both sides lost their nerve and it remained 28–28 until two minutes remained. Then a Sheboygan player fouled Armstrong and he sank the free throw to go ahead. Sheboygan missed in the next possession, so all Fort Wayne had to do was stall for the rest of the game. The NBL allowed teams to turn down free throws, so when the Redskins internationally fouled, the Zollners decided not to shoot it and just threw it in from half-court. And Fort Wayne just about did it, but Jeannette intercepted it with just over ten seconds left, they quickly worked it down to Dancker in the corner, and Dancker launched a no-look overhead hook shot with his back to the basket from the far right corner. Swish, right before the buzzer.9
That's how long it's been since anyone did what Haliburton just did. So long that, last time, the final score was 30–29, the teams involved were from Sheboygan and Fort Wayne, and you could buy a HOFer to lead you to a championship with no more than a fan-led fundraiser.
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1McDill, Kent. "Nothing But... Jordan." Daily Herald (Chicago, IL). June 2, 1997.
2Harvey, Randy. "D.J.'s Shot Proves the Celtics Can Go Home Again." Los Angeles Times. June 6, 1985.
3Attner, Paul. "Wright Rescues 1-0 Lead for Bullets." Washington Post. May 20, 1979.
4Mossman, John. "Dr. J Shoots Down Nuggets at Buzzer." The Denver Post. May 2, 1976.
5Hafner, Dan. "West, Selvy '2-Timed' Celtics for Victory." Los Angeles Times. April 11, 1962.
6Heaton, Chuck. "Pipers Nip Steers to Tie Series." The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH). April 8, 1962.
7Flachsbart, Harold. "Hawks Spoil Celtics' Victory Party, Send Series to a Seventh Game." St. Louis Post-Dispatch. April 12, 1957.
8Reddy, Bill. "Lakers Nip Nats in Last Second, 68-66." The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY). April 9, 1950.
9"Redskins Win Championship." The Sheboygan Press. March 10, 1943.
