As Vikram put it, this was going to be "the last game of the finals" and the Spurs would be leaving Miami with a championship (despite being 6 point underdogs going into the game, I pointed out but was met with ostracism)........and then Game 6 happened.
I'm usually a big noisemaker at sports bars and actively try to be the one guy at the bar in a random sports jersey who is clapping alone at the far end of the bar while everyone else is silent, or just rile up the crowd like I'm at an actual game by randomly "whooping," but I have NEVER been as loud as I was in Game 6. It started at around halftime when Vikram, Pancho, and I were but a sparse crowd in the bar (the only source of the NBA game in the entire baseball stadium- imagine that!) when Kawhi Leonard made an athletic play or Tiago Splitter unexpectedly made a left hand hook shot in the lane, but nothing to get too excited about. As the game was close heading into the final minutes of the 4th quarter, however, people strolled in like sharks smelling blood in the water. Various comments of "looks like San Antonio's gonna do it" came from the admiring crowd, with each basket by the Spurs met with approving applause and shouts while each Heat basket came with some hissing. The final half hour of the game went about like this:
-Miami Heat big run toward the end of the game led by Lebron's no-headband foray: building excitemnt
-Heat taking a 3-point lead: groans (but more people filing in as news on the Twitter feeds indicated that people should "get to a TV and watch this game"
- Tony Parker stepback prayer 3-pointer to tie the game: (as ball's in the air) what the........(goes in) Whoaaaaa!!!! - at that point we knew it was not going to be a normal game
Tony Parker little runner in the lane: BOOM! Vikram and Pancho high-fiving
Lebron James missing consecutive 3's and then not getting a call going to the hoop: loud yelling and clapping, anticipation. Spurs fans in the bar at maximum capacity and talking A LOT of trash.
Manu Ginobili missed free throw: OK we still got this.
LeBron James made 3: He got lucky! One random Miami Heat jumping for "we still got a bit of life" joy.
Kawhi Leonard missed free throw: dude, make your free throws!
Ray Allen corner 3: Mass euphoria, loudest pop at a sports bar I've ever heard, exactly the scene in every sports bar/Buffalo Wild Wings commercial where the fans are all watching the same thing with baited breath and suddenly with one breath yells in agony/elation as the shot goes in.
..... The rest (including overtime, which was also exciting) is history.
Possibly one of the greatest sports games ever and one I'll always remember. One of the reasons I watch live sports anymore. Especially with the Twitter/Facebook/social media era, everyone can just wait for the end of games to watch, or "get to a TV," but if the 16-point rating on ABC would suggest, there's still a LOT of interest in great sports and great sports moments. The top sports moments I remember from recent decade:
1.) 2010 World Cup Landon Donovan goal: happened during the morning rush hour, by the time everyone had gotten to work the game ended and became instant water cooler talk.
2.) Super Bowl - well, yea, any Super Bowl. It's incredible how the Super Bowl defines the sports culture of America, a sport that is very difficult for people to understand in other nations. Like the common people knowing who Michael Jordan is, you know the Super Bowl is transcendant in everyday culture because EVERYONE knows what the Super Bowl is.
3.) 2011 MLB last day of the regular season: The day the Red Sox and Braves got eliminated from the playoffs in spectacular fashion.
3.) 2011 Women's World Cup Final: Hope Solo, Abby Wambach and the US women's team drew a surprising amount of attention given their miraculous win earlier against Brazil. The highlight of the summer and especially memorable for me because it was in the midst of my longest Streak (see Streak for Cash) ever.
4.) 2010: The Decision. It's funny looking back on that, but the buildup and hype to LeBron James's "talent search" was HUGE.
In fact, I think that sports moments have now become the new "where was everybody when this happened?" The biggest example is 9-1-1 World Trade Center, where an event affected the world enough so that everyone can remember where they were, synomomus with (I don't know this) when JFK was assissinated, or the series finale of MASH. What with different tastes and so many different options to choose from on TV, DirectTV, Netflix, CNN, BBC, Tru News, etc., etc., people don't watch the same things anymore. It takes a HUGE news story or COLOSSAL sports game to get the attention of everyone in the US, much less the world, and Game 6 was definitely one of those moments that we can look back on and remember as a..........(Sports) Landmark.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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