The 10 Best Plays in NBA History
What does it take to produce one of the best plays in NBA history? If posterizing dunks, buzzer beating game winners and brutal power is your thing then you're at the right place.
Best Plays in NBA History
Read on for the list of best plays in NBA history. How did we come up with the list? We took a list of Sports Illustrated's favorite moments, took into consideration the internet's most timeless NBA moments and considered the relevance of each play. Let's take at the 10 best plays in NBA history.
10. Larry Bird's Steal
The ageing Celtics came up against Detroit's "Bad Boys" in the 1987 Eastern Conference finals. With the series locked at two-all, a win for Detroit would have led to them likely clinching the series at home in Game 6. With five seconds left Detroit's Isiah Thomas was inbounding the ball from the sideline.
Bird caught a quick glance of Thomas looking toward Bill Laimbeer in the low post an instant before he released the ball. Bird instinctively launched himself to intercept the ball. It looked like his momentum would take him out of bounds but he gathered his balance at the baseline.
Bird spotted Dennis Johnson making a cut and passed it to him with Johnson sinking the layup with one second remaining. The Celtics went on to win the series in seven games and advance to the NBA Finals but lost to the Lakers in six games.
9. Shaq Destroys the Backboard
During a regular season game in 1993, Orlando Magic rookie Shaquille O'Neal made a powerful put-back dunk against the New Jersey Nets. Now, Shaq was dominant throughout his career which is why he's one of the best NBA players of all time, but this dunk was different.
Shaq's dunk was so strong it destroyed the hydraulic system holding up the backboard leading to it buckling and folding onto the floor. The crowd was in raptures and to this day, nobody will remember the game for Nick Anderson's career-high 50 points off the bench.
8. LeBron James with "The Block"
LeBron James delivered one of the best plays in NBA history and the best blocked of all time. It was Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals between Cleveland and Golden State. With 1:56 on the clock Golden State's Andre Iguodala was on a clean break and about to put his team ahead 91-89.
Chasing down Iguodala at 20.1 miles per hours was LeBron James who never gave up on the play. LeBron sprung up from behind, soaring 35 inches, and blocked Iguodala to completely swing the games momentum. Kyrie Irving hit a three-pointer over Stephen Curry with 53 seconds left.
"The Block" is considered to be one of the greatest clutch moments and greatest defensive play of all time. Cleveland stopped the 73-9 Golden State Warriors, became the only team to overturn a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals and ending Cleveland's 52-year drought without a major sports title.
...OK Tribe I'll be back tomorrow with part two
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Wolfgang Sport started in 2017 as a way to connect my passion for American and British sports. Today it's evolved into a blockchain sports blog pushing the boundaries into the crypto world and embracing Web3 technologies.
That block by James, will be immortalized for years to come. I am curious where MJ's play against the Lakers in the 1991 NBA Finals will be ranked (^_^)
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