well as an Alabama football fan I should probably just kill myself before the show, so I don't have to relive those two moments over and over again....
Ridiculous. Your reasoning says that great 3pt shooters are just more lucky than others. Lillard is an above average 3pt shooter, and known to be great in pressure situations. These are patterns in his career. This 3pter was more difficult and more pressure packed, and he nailed it. No more luck involved in this shot than it is with the last shot of a 7-pass sequence. They HAVE given Lillard shots in the dying moments, and he has excelled. There is no coach who gives it to a player and hopes it just goes in. The guy was given the ball because they know he can make that shot. I would not let Lillard take that shot again. It's 0.9 seconds. Whether it was an alley oop or a 3pter, luck is involved somewhere in the chain be it the pass or the shot. Being "clutch" is an absolute myth IMO. However, the existence of players who are indifferent to or motivated by pressure is no myth, we have seen it as a pattern over decades. He made an absolutely amazing shot and I was not even mad at the players. There are some shots you can't stop, and Lillard picked his shot. He decided to stay outside, break away at high speed, and he decided to elevate higher than he normally does, and he anticipated possibly being off balance and despite all that he nailed it. Cold-blooded. Absolutely one of the best game winners in recent memory, especially given how Parsons was celebrating scoring the previous basket as if he had just won the Finals.
No, what I'm saying is that any SINGLE shot going in is random chance/luck. A 40% 3pt shooter still misses that shot 6/10 times. His being a good overall 3pt shooter is not luck, that's the result of practice and skill. And his confidence to attempt and make that shot is a good attribute, however as we've all seen confidence ebbs and flows from game to game and season to season. However, having any single shot go in on a particular day is as much chance as anything (IE, governed by their base statistical odds). If you stack a deck so you get more aces, the skill is in stacking the deck, NOT in drawing the actual Ace. Even if half the deck is Aces, there's still a luck/random component. And the Coach doesn't give him that shot because he "knows" that shot will go in, he gives Lillard that shot because he represents the best CHANCE of making that shot. The most "clutch" shooters in the game STILL generally miss more often than they make their shots. That's the luck component. You don't believe me? Take a look at THIS.... do you see tons of guys shooting 90%+? How many are even better than even money? http://82games.com/gamewinningshots.htm It's great that Lillard made that shot, but to act like it was some sort of predetermined outcome is ridiculous. It's a pure percentage play that happened to pay off in a critical moment and took NO judgement or basketball expertise other than to run to the spot, catch the ball, set his feet, and stroke the ball. He took a tough shot and he made it. That's all. Let's not make it something more than it is... which is a good shot at a critical juncture of the game. It wasn't a demonstration of jaw dropping skill, execution, or BBIQ.
Biggest travesty was when Joe Adam's punt return didn't win play of the year. A freaking buzzer beater won that year instead. Shame
The Auburn field goal return is by far the greatest play of the year and one of the best of all time. War Damn.
That must hurt, but still what an amazing sequence of events to even get to the point of that FG return TD to happen. Will never see anything like it in your life especially considering the rivalry and what was on the line.
