The stands are tinted white. The shouts of encouragement, which are intended to become something more tangible for the players, do not drop a decibel. Action, and the longing to relive recent glory, push for it. At the end of the first half, Tim Duncan, who has averaged 17.8 points in the regular season, accumulates 25 lines on his sheet. Also eight rebounds. A capital display that gives a minimal, but blessed, advantage to the Spurs (44-50). It’s June 18, 2013 and Miami is bound to win if it doesn’t want to say goodbye to the NBA Finals. The second part begins and the corner of hardship attracts as the opposite pole. LeBron, with nine points and a -10 on the track during the first half, wants to make up for it; but it runs into a wall in the shape of a hand, and very large. Kawhi Leonard, who intercepts a pass to Dwyane Wade, takes off towards the opposite basket and receives the foul: 2 + 1 and a gap in the score that, at the end of the third quarter, is 10 points (65-75).
The ghosts begin to appear. Now, instead of being known by Nowitzki, Kidd and Chandler, they call themselves Duncan, Ginobili and Parker. Headline-shaped psychophonies: critics don’t understand recent hits, only the here and now. The demand is based on the scarcity of memory: no matter what you have done, remember it. Enough. “Trust each other”says Erik Spoelstra. And it begins to be done, in a general and strict sense: LeBron is another. Pick and roll with Chalmers and two-handed kill, Mario’s own short shot and merciless pounding, dance with Kawhi, who has now become tiny, and two more; thus, one after another, until reaching 16 points. Duncan, meanwhile, zero. There is a game, but the clock wears black. There are 19 seconds left and the electronic dialing a 92-95: there is only one solution and it must go through the king. Hamilton embroider the block and, behind him, the eyes of Tim and Tony can only contemplate how LeBron is left alone, from the line of three, eleven sighs from the end. Two seconds later, the ball hits the ring: you can breathe, until Chris Bosh says otherwise. Now, seven from the precipice, all eyes are on Ray Allen: steps back as he receives the ball, arms up, jump, shoot, the air is finished again … and triple for history.
“Oh yes they do”Allen confesses in an interview with CBS Sports, when asked if, as some rumors say, LeBron and Spoelstra call him from time to time, and without warning, to thank him for his saving shot. “That’s right. And I owe them a lot for accepting me into their team. They already had a winning environment, and welcoming me to help them move to the next level … that’s what real winners do. They always continue to find ways to progress. Be that as it may. They are always willing to learn and improve. There has not been a year in which either of them has not mentioned 2013 to me. They are always grateful for my contribution “, Explain. With his triple, he forced the extension of the sixth game, made good the triple-double that LeBron would end up signing (32 + 11 + 10) and pushed Miami to its second consecutive title. “Get these fucking yellow ribbons out of here!” Ray would yell after the ball passed through the net. Workers at the American Airlines Arena had already sealed the space for the Spurs celebration, which would be postponed until the following year.
Basketball is (almost) a dice game too
Both Miami and LeBron broke a sweat. The king, He even abandoned his inseparable, at that time, headband. He lost it and did not worry about it anymore: the concentration was maximum and he did not leave space for anything else. Neither Wade nor Bosh (despite the rebound) were at their legendary height, and the responsibility gradually became a monopoly that only Allen would break., vital beyond the triple. In extra time, from the free throw line, He would score the last two points, those that countered Kawhi’s four and put the final 103-100 on the scoreboard.
A result as momentous for Miami as it was painful for Gregg Popovich’s team, who saw a final earthquake make their fifth ring since 1996 slip through their fingers. During the following months, the word that resounded and tormented the most (as much as it can be immersed in its well-deserved happiness), within the heads of the Heat players, was that of “luck”. “We feel slighted, I’m not going to lie to you. The series went to seven games, not that we were 3-0 losing, we came back in the fourth and ended up winning four in a row. If you look at the series numbers, the leader changes, the times the score was tied and the points, it was all very even “, LeBron stated in response to the murmurs.
Indeed, Miami did not leave a blow unanswered: before giving the final thrust in the seventh game, he tied the series three times. To James’s words, a Wade less affected by the whispers added: “The ball bounces unpredictably. We are grateful that Ray Allen made that shot, but it was a series of circumstances that allowed us to emerge victorious from that match. It takes a bit of luck, even to be in The Finals. We were a bit lucky at the time, but we won the championship. “ Luck, many times, is sought. The basketball, surely, also has its share of dice. However, when the providential shot falls into the hands of a Hall of Fame, 12 times All Star and, above all, the highest triplet in the history of the competition, the probability is on your side.