Sean Deveney - The History of the NBA in Twelve Games: From 24 Seconds to 30,000 3-Pointers

Sean Deveney has been a writer and editor covering the NBA since 1999 for a variety of publications, including Sporting News, Forbes, the NBAs Retired Players Association, and Heavy.com. He has attended nineteen NBA Finals series, twenty NBA All-Star games, and over two USA Basketball Dream Teams at the Olympics. He is the author of eight books, including Remembering Kobe Bryant, Fun City, Greed and Glory, Facing Michael Jordan, and The Original Curse. He lives in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he makes lunches for his daughter, Maisie.

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THE GAME: OCTOBER 30, 1954, ROCHESTER ROYALS VS. BOSTON CELTICS

THE GAME: MAY 5, 1969, BOSTON CELTICS VS. LOS ANGELES LAKERS, GAME 7, NBA FINALS

THE GAME: MARCH 14, 1975, LOS ANGELES LAKERS VS. MILWAUKEE BUCKS

THE GAME: APRIL 14, 1984, KANSAS CITY KINGS VS. HOUSTON ROCKETS

THE GAME: MAY 27, 1984, LOS ANGELES LAKERS VS. BOSTON CELTICS, GAME 1, NBA FINALS

THE GAME: APRIL 3, 1988, CHICAGO BULLS VS. DETROIT PISTONS

THE GAME: MAY 14, 1997, MIAMI HEAT VS. NEW YORK KNICKS, GAME 5, EASTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS

THE GAME: FEBRUARY 8, 1998, EASTERN CONFERENCE VS. WESTERN CONFERENCE, NBA ALL-STAR GAME

THE GAME: MARCH 29, 1998, WORLD SELECT VS. US SELECT, NIKE HOOPS SUMMIT

THE GAME: MAY 31, 2002, LOS ANGELES LAKERS VS. SACRAMENTO KINGS, GAME 6, WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

THE GAME: JUNE 7, 2012, MIAMI HEAT VS. BOSTON CELTICS, GAME 6, EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

THE GAME: FEBRUARY 27, 2013, NEW YORK KNICKS VS. GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

The seats were so high above the court, we could look down at the rafters to see the banners that marked the Celtics fifteen championships. The other 14,000 or so patrons at the old Boston Garden had to crane their necks up to see the storied old green-and-white flags, but not us. We were in the super-rafters. We were in the upper deck of the upper deck. In those days, the Garden was famed for its varmint population, and up where our seats were, we could look straight out at the massive white steel beams that crisscrossed the top of the building and track the paths of rats scurrying along from one dark corner to another. They were obstructed-view seats, which meant a sizable I-bar column blocked the sightline of the court. For most in attendance, the view of the game was not obstructed but the view of the rodents above was. Our seats were the opposite. Lucky us.

My father had some old friends who split a season-ticket package for Celtics games, and occasionally, when our tetanus shots were up-to-date and wed had some light altitude training, theyd bless us with three of them. Wed slap on our cheap white painters caps with CELTICS in green across the front, my dad would take my brother and me on the long trek up to Section 106 (or was it 107?), and I would spend a couple of hours filling up on stale popcorn and flat Coke, trying not to look straight down for fear of early-onset acrophobia. It was 1986 and the Celtics were the best team in the NBA. They were fun and deep, terrific defensively and entertaining on a fast break. The Garden would get so loud when the Celtics went on a critical runand they always went on a run that seasonthat it looked like the banners were shaking, and it felt like all the noise from below was rising up and up and settling upon us there in Section 106 (or 107). There were no better terrible seats in all of sports, I am sure of it still.

It was obvious that year that the Celtics were looking at a lengthy postseason runthat theyd be playing well into June, and probably would not face much difficulty even when they got there. With that in mind, my dads friends figured itd be safe to unload a few Sunday-afternoon tickets for a first-round game to the Deveneys. They were playing Chicago, after all, and Chicago was terrible, had no business being in the postseason. They were the No. 8 seed in the conference, a team that had won thirty games all year. Heck, the Celtics had thirty-one wins by the end of January. This was not going to be a close matchup. Boston won the opener by 19 points and Bulls coach Stan Albeck was left whining a bit too much about all the credit the Celtics got for their passing.

Albecks best player at the time, of course, was Michael Jordan, the second-year star still best known for his game-winning shot at North Carolina to beat Georgetown for the 1982 NCAA championship. He had a line of sneakers but had not played much in 1986, suffering a broken foot in October which kept him out into March. Jordan played fifteen games after his return and averaged 22.5 points, a solid finish to an uneven year, but not one that would have foretold what Jordan was about to do in the playoffs. First, even in the Bulls blowout Game 1 loss, Jordan scored 49 points in 43 minutes, shooting 18-for-36 from the field. Then came Game 2, with me, my father, and my brother in the stands, thanks to the courtesy of the ticket-holding family friends. We made the long journey to our faithful pole in Section 106-ish and had no idea what we were about to obstructedly see Jordan do. He took 41 shots and made 22 of them, and took 21 free throws with 19 makes. He scored 63 points63!in 53 minutes, breaking Elgin Baylors single-game NBA playoff scoring record. Best of all, not only were we on hand for such a feat of individual brilliance, but the Celtics managed a 135131 win in double-overtime, allowing us kids to go home happy, the upper-deck racket still ricocheting in our heads, even as the grown-ups around us could only marvel at what Jordan had just done.

This was the game after which Larry Bird quipped, Michael is the most awesome, exciting player in the game today. I didnt think anyone could do against us what Jordan has done in the first two games.... I think its just God, disguised as Michael Jordan. It was a game that would be forever remembered, one that helped to seal Jordans arrival as a basketball marvel. Bob Ryan wrote in the Boston Globe: There is no question that this game will make the Top 5, and maybe even the Top 3, of Greatest Celtics Play-Off Games ever among the Garden cognoscenti.

And we were there.

It was difficult, when constructing a list of twelve games to highlight over the history of the NBA, to leave out Jordans performance in April 1986. I was there, after all, I knew it was a big deal at the time. It was a breakout moment for Jordan. But if you are looking to dig into a game that defined Jordan, that fashioned the legacy he left behind, it really cant be that 63-pointer. It was an important development in creating Jordan as a star, as an all-time great scorer, but the early-career scoring ability is only half the story of Jordan, and not really even the most interesting half. What mattered more about Jordan and how he is remembered, his impact on the game, was the way he was driven to win, his obsession with championships. He did not know how to do that in 1986, and even if he did, he did not have the talent around him to beat a team like the Celtics. Those 63 points were part of his legacy as an individual star, but his lasting legacy was the one he left for the Bulls and for Chicagosix appearances in the NBA Finals, six championships. There had to be a different game that could showcase this aspect of what Jordan accomplishedthat run of titles, maybe at its endpoint, or its zenith, or its origin (which is what I chose).