Check out the final possessions of the last 16 NBA Finals in all their glory
Every postseason participant dreams of winning a title, but the four teams still alive in the 2015 NBA Playoffs are now close enough to entertain the notion with a greater degree of seriousness. In a few weeks one of them will see all that hard work and success culminate in official recognition of their status as the best basketball team in the world. The final buzzer of that clinching victory can be a cathartic moment, an instant in which a lifetime of effort all becomes worth it.
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The following video is a reminder of exactly what that looks like. YouTube user “Rainbow Senpai” has put together a compilation of the final possession of every title-clinching win from the San Antonio Spurs’ first title in 1999 through their fifth in 2014, 16 brief plays that usually show up in the box score as one team dribbling the ball out. The reality is usually a little more joyous than that description suggests. Take a look (via Reddit via SLAM):
There’s a nice mix of plays here, from defensive stands to garbage time nonsense in which star players appear to have been on the bench for at least five minutes. When the final buzzer sounds, home fans may erupt in joy or away fans may politely applaud and/or shuffle out quietly. The common thread is that one of the teams looks like they just won the lottery. (Dirk Nowitzki’s reaction to winning the lottery is apparently to leave whatever room he’s in at that moment.)
Either the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Atlanta Hawks, or Cleveland Cavaliers will play out this same scenario soon enough. Here’s hoping it’s thrilling enough to avoid being remembered via NBA TV highlights eight years from now. Even Spurs fans didn’t care about the 2007 title enough to make the raw footage readily available.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
