If you were watching Winning Time: Rise of the Lakers Dynasty this weekend on HBO or MAX, then you no doubt remember one of the final scenes in their third game against the Houston Rockets.
Paul holds a huddle with the team trailing and seconds left on the clock before telling Magic to bring the ball down the court and look for Cap, Coop, or a couple of other options. He’s not instructed to shoot.
With the season on the line he brings the ball down the court, we see his vision get a little blurry, and then he ultimately decides to drive and take a shot, which results in an airball.
While Winning Time isn’t completely a hard line factually told story, the airball did occur and you can checkout out below. There is also another play that is really similar.
It happens while Magic is a member of the 1992 United States Dream Team, likely the greatest assembly of basketball players ever brought together. Magic is playing with Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and many, many others.
We see Larry strip the ball from Drazen Petrovic of Croatia (another great player, who sadly died that next year), and pass to Magic, who leads a fast break, ignores Jordan and David Robinson, before going for the floater, and we see an airball, before Scottie Pippen rebounds and replaces the bucket.
Now, history tells us that this wasn’t a big deal at all. The Dream Team would walk to a Gold Medal and Magic is still a legend. Given he did this after his HIV diagnosis makes it an even bigger achievement.
You can watch both the airball from the show and the Dream Team airball below..
What do you think of both plays? Let me know in the comments below.
ALSO catch up with what happened in the second episode of the second season last night HERE
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