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Hardwood Paroxysm presents: The 5 NBA games you could watch for the rest of your life

By HP Basketball Network

Oct 17, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; General view of a Spalding basketball with the signature of NBA commissioner Adam Silver (not pictured) at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 17, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; General view of a Spalding basketball with the signature of NBA commissioner Adam Silver (not pictured) at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /
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2. 1993 NBA Finals, Game 4

by Tyler Parker (@tkparker) – Hardwood Paroxysm

One of my favorite talk show moments ever happened when Louis CK went on David Letterman to promote Blue Jasmine. Andrew Dice Clay was in that movie with CK, and they had been doing press together. CK played two voicemails for Letterman. One from one of his daughters saying that she loved it. The other from ADC, who insults him. CK says that he keeps those two because that’s how he always wants to feel about himself, good and bad, the full spectrum on display.

***

I like watching old Barkley clips because no one today looks like him. It’s like if there were videos of actual mastodons we could go find on YouTube. My favorite game to think about, and to go back and watch on YouTube, is Game 4 of the 1993 NBA Finals. Bulls vs. Suns. I like it for many reasons – the fight Ainge and Jordan get into, getting excited when Oliver Miller makes an appearance, Horace going for 17 and 16 – but the main one is getting to see Barkley in all his purple glory, regal as ever and shining. He shows off his full range, and he does all he can. Puts up one of the best lines in NBA Finals history. Goes for 34, 12 and 10 in forty-six minutes. Shoots 52% from the field and 80% from the line. This was Barkley at his absolute best, and it wasn’t enough. Jordan went for a murderous/double siren/sound every alarm 55. He was an earthquake, and he beat him.

Barkley has said before, going into that season, after the Dream Team, he felt he was the best player in the world. He held that belief through the playoffs, and into the Finals. Then Jordan showed up. Barkley’s told stories on podcasts about how he never thought he’d played against anybody better than him, until then. It was the one time he questioned it when he was at his peak.

I like thinking about all that, because it’s always provided me a nice reminder that there is always somebody better. A person could be doing greater than they’ve ever done, on a stage bigger than any other, and it still might not be enough. I suppose that should be scary, but there is something calming about it. Losing is possible, even for the greats, so when it happens, just chill out. It’s nickelstore advice, but good advice nonetheless: Just because you’re great at something does not mean you’re owed the world.

I’ve mentioned this game to my parents before, and showed my Dad old clips from it on YouTube one Christmas when I was showing him what all YouTube was capable of; because that’s a conversation you have to have with your parents. He had funny things to say about the game. I watched it with him when I was 5 in a rent house we were staying in at the time. That’s the only house I ever lived in with a fence. I wore a Jordan shirt, because if you lived in a state without a team, in those days you adopted the Bulls (that’s not a new observation). My Dad said I hated Barkley then. He said I thought he was villain. That he was bad. And when he scored I would get upset. Isn’t that weird?

Next: 1. 2013 NBA Finals, Game 6