Hardwood Paroxysm: The greatest things we’ve ever seen on a basketball court

The greatest thing I ever saw in person was Ricky Rubio against the Dallas Mavericks

By Steve McPherson (@steventurous)

A bit of context: In 2010-11, I became a Timberwolves season ticket holder. This was after at least a decade of Wolves fandom, but I hadn’t really thought of myself as a “season ticket holder” kind of guy. When the Wolves offered their “pay the pick” promotion, though, it seemed too good to pass up: if they got the #1 overall pick in the lottery, I would be paying $2 a game for two seats for the entire season! But of course, they got the fourth pick and instead of John Wall or DeMarcus Cousins or Paul George they got Wes Johnson and I still got a pretty good deal, all things considered.

But my lord did that team suck.

They were 17-65 under Kurt Rambis and it is not inaccurate to say that at time I hated hated hated them. Sure, I wanted the Wolves to succeed, but I also wanted them to be fun, to deliver those little pleasure bursts — those LeBron James dunks, those Anthony Davis blocks, those Steph Curry 3-pointers — that can crystallize and enliven a team, an arena, a season. Since Garnett’s departure, there had been a dearth of that for the Wolves, first with the dependable ground-bound game of Al Jefferson and then with the numbers-rich but highlight-starved first few years with Kevin Love.

But 2011-12 brought Ricky Rubio and with him came puppy breath and cinnamon.

The season, though, started 0-3, including losses to the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Lebron-led Miami Heat. Their fourth game didn’t look any easier, facing off against the reigning champion Dallas Mavericks. But at the half, the Wolves were up 9. They held steady in the third, up 5 at the end. I expected them, though, to fold in the fourth, for Dallas to step up with their veteran experience and championship pedigree and put a stop to this.

But they didn’t. And it was Rubio leading the way.

He played the entire fourth quarter and while we’d already seen some dazzling displays of passing brilliance from him, this was something more than a simple highlight. He strung passes together into an unrelenting tide the Mavericks were helpless to stop, drained a 3-pointer to get the lead to ten and dropped feather soft layups into the basket. Dallas made one final push halfway through the quarter and got as close as two before the Wolves stepped on the gas and … well, this happened:

I may have blacked out. Isolated, it’s an amazing pass right through Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki’s legs to Anthony Tolliver in the corner for the 3-pointer. But in the crescendo of the game, within the context of being a Wolves fan who had hoped for so long to see something FUN, it was the greatest thing I ever saw in person on a basketball court.