List the greatest NBA games you've ever seen

San Padre Oystercathers doing over Bloomberg Kitsch 72-12 in the penultimate overscore period. TJ "Grapevine" Obenheimer Jr hit the best damn doublecatch I've seen since he was in the college sphere.

some celtics highlights:

1974 Finals, Bucks vs Celtics - Game 6
1987 Eastern Conference Finals, Pistons v Celtics - Game 5
1981 Eastern Conference Finals - whole series

(Bird and the Celtics had lost to Dr J and the 76ers in 1980 but by 1981 had improved enough to win - only to be Kareemed in the subsequent Finals)

I second all of Tracer's selections (I was a huge C's fan in the 80s).

1988 Eastern Conference Semis, Celtics v Hawks - game 7 as well. A whole bunch of C's games from the 80's really

Any game played of NBA Jam or NBA Jam: Tournament Edition, especially when the dude says BOOMSHAKALAKA!

Also that 76ers-Magic game I went to in person. The on-court "action" was horrible but the blueberry water ice I got at half time was so effing awesome.

Also great is the game from around 1992 (don't know exact date) where a near retirement Bird led a depleted C's team past the near invincible Trail Blazers on national TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l97uj9Uvnvo

I lived in H-town at the time, so.

bulls vs knicks in early-mid 90s playoffs never gets as much recognition as earlier bulls vs pistons games or jordan's famous finals performances, but they were some of my most memorable. particularly the one (don't remember which, exactly, sorry) where knicks had chance to tie it at the end but bulls denied 3 or 4 point blank shots.

espn classic shows some good ones, though most are edited to shit.

Yeah, the Knicks-Bulls Eastern Conference finals in 1993 were pretty awesome

only one that comes to mind is the bullets finally getting to the playoffs and facing the bulls, jordan obviously really sick with the flu or something, sitting on the bench sweating and moving slower than usual, but still comes in and scores something like 30 points, trouncing the bullets

Jordan killing the Cavs back in the days when the Cavs weren't a one man show and had a great team. Those were some good playoff games.

as were the '98 conf finals between Bulls and Pacers. Think it was the only time the 90s Bulls ever get extended to 7 games in a series.

only one that comes to mind is the bullets finally getting to the playoffs and facing the bulls, jordan obviously really sick with the flu or something, sitting on the bench sweating and moving slower than usual, but still comes in and scores something like 30 points, trouncing the bullets

-- n/a, Tuesday, August 5, 2008 1:58 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

looks like this was 1997, maybe game 5, and it was 38 points (!)

haha maybe there should be a seperate greatest Jordan games you've ever seen
still remember losing my shit when MJ hit The Shot over Ehlo. "c'mon Lil Granny, we gotta go to dinner." "5 more minutes, Mom! This shit is crucial!"

I saw Bernard King drop 52 on the Nuggets in 1991.

I also watched almost every televised playoff game from 1990 - 1998, so I saw MJ's entire championship run, and a lot of other sick games.

I also got a "Greatest Michael Jordan DVDs Ever" about three years ago - 5 complete games, including his 63 against the Celtics in 86. Ridiculous stuff.

yeah i've got that set and put it on a couple times this past year when the current bulls were sucking much ass. everyone present thanked me. love to watch pre-championship reg season MJ, when he was averaging 35ppg. great to have them uncut with the original play by play.
i've thought for awhile that the NBA should have some service where you pick out which games you want, and they send you a dvd of them.

How cool would that be?

"May I have all of the Eastern Conference Finals games from years 1990 - 1993, please? Yes, I'll pay."

The Bulls returned to Utah for Game 6 on June 14, 1998 leading the series 3–2. Jordan executed a series of plays, considered to be one of the greatest clutch performances in NBA Finals history.[53] With the Bulls trailing 86–83 with 40 seconds remaining, coach Jackson called a timeout. When play resumed, Jordan received the inbound pass, drove to the basket, and hit a layup over several Jazz defenders.[53] The Jazz brought the ball upcourt and passed the ball to forward Karl Malone, who was set up in the low post and was being guarded by Rodman. Malone jostled with Rodman and caught the pass, but Jordan cut behind him and swatted the ball out of his hands for a steal.[53] Jordan then slowly dribbled upcourt and paused at the top of the key, eyeing his defender, Jazz guard Bryon Russell. With fewer than 10 seconds remaining, Jordan started to dribble right, then crossed over to his left, possibly pushing off Russell,[54][55][56] although the officials did not call a foul. Jordan then released a shot that would be rebroadcast innumerable times in years to come. As the shot found the net, announcer Bob Costas shouted "Chicago with the lead!"

^lost my shit on that one more than any other sports moment ever. what a magnificient bastard.
ongoing debate over whether MJ truly pushed Russel to the ground, or whether he was already falling and MJ merely helped a lil.

also to those who dont know (or have forgotten) the context, that was, as far as anyone knew at the time, his last shot of his last game

i never thought he pushed off, iirc the crossover broke him - at any rate you just dont call that shit: there's a chance still be talking about it today if a foul had been called, & thats way less cool

no ref would have ever blown the whistle there.

if you watch it in slo-mo (which most people have probably seen way more of), it looks like MJ is shoving and causing the fall. full speed and it looks more like a "okay chump you need to get your falling ass out of my way cause i'm about to splash this". i only ever get into this debate with challops mofos who by criticizing MJ think they're unique, sage, unbiased observers.

thing is i just watched the replay on YT (not exactly best quality admittedly) & russell is clearly overdefending & out of his depth; the crossover (which did happen after the 'shove') wouldve given jordan an open look no matter what. and yeah, no ref anywhere would call that, & not just because 'its MJ'

greatest series of this decade? kings-lakers 02?

lol at the NBA's attempt to do "NFL Films" type game documentaries. get one (1x) own style

i've thought for awhile that the NBA should have some service where you pick out which games you want, and they send you a dvd of them.

-- Granny Dainger, Tuesday, 5 August 2008 15:39 (Yesterday) Link

are there any sites out there like this that anyone's aware of? i'd also pay a fair bit for unedited broadcasts

MLB.com has done downloads of classic games for years, and now does this thru iTunes:

http://mlb.com/downloads

However I'd imagine the cost of transcoding some random Brewers game from 1979 means you're not going to get on-demand video of any game you want anytime soon - or actually ever.

post MJ the game that's sticking out in my mind is 2006 1st round Lakers vs Phoenix where Kobe stole the ball from Nash (or did SMUSH PARKER rip it?), got it back and did a nifty lil floater to send it to overtime, and then hit well-defended jumper to win it in OT.

any game the 85/86 c's played. when they had things going they were so fluid and so much fun to watch.