30 best shots in NBA Playoffs history
By John Buhler
10. Vinnie “The Microwave” Johnson nukes the Portland Trail Blazers: 1990 NBA Finals, Game 5
Vinnie Johnson was an important rotational player for the Detroit Bad Boys Pistons. He also has one of the NBA’s longest-lasting nicknames: The Microwave. That is because Johnson could heat up in an instant coming off the Pistons’ bench.
Detroit won its first NBA title the year before over the Showtime Lakers. The Pistons were the dominant team in the superior Eastern Conference at that time. They still had to go through a tough Portland Trail Blazers team in the 1990 NBA Finals.
Up 3-1 in the series, Johnson would get the ball in the corner with the game all tied up at 90 points apiece. He would go to work in isolation on Portland’s Jerome Kersey. Johnson would get his 14-foot shot off to make the series-clinching bucket with 0.7 seconds left on the clock.
The Pistons would win back-to-back NBA Finals after Johnson’s best shot of his career. Detroit would stay playoff relevant for the next few seasons, but would not win another NBA Finals until 2004 when Larry Brown’s team topped the Los Angeles Lakers.
Though they weren’t quite a dynasty, it is impossible to tell the story of the NBA without the interesting chapter about the Bad Boy Pistons. Nobody embraced being the antagonist quite like Detroit did at that time.