You tune in every night, keep track of the league’s best players, monitor their happiness and potential drama, work the trade machines in February, keep your eyes peeled in March and make predictions in April. And you do it all, really, for context.
When the playoffs begin, you’ve already spent nearly six months watching basketball – at least the real basketball fans have. Then everything changes.
The best players ramp things up. Every game becomes more important. Kevin Harlan and Mike Breen become the narrators. All the stuff you consumed – the rumors, the interviews, the games, the injuries, the heartbreak, the hope – coil into one big, mysterious thing.
We might think we know what’s going to happen, but we never know how it will happen.
Then something happens. Something that blows your mind and forces you to rethink how you see the sport and its major characters.
Sometimes it’s a shot that saves a season, like Ray Allen’s corner 3 in Game 6 of the 2013 Finals, or one that defines an entire career, like Kyrie Irving’s dagger in Game 7 of the 2016 Finals or Robert Horry in the 2002 Western Conference finals.
But to me, the greatest somethings that happen are the ones that express the ruthless defiance that is the common denominator of the game’s legends. These are the magical moments that only the Greats are capable of creating.
We’re going to call them “Mic drop moments.” They aren’t (necessarily) the most clutch shots in playoff history or even (necessarily) the most important sequences that ever happened. These stand out because they are moments when the game’s best players prove something by tapping into the highest level of what makes them great. They didn’t need to say anything because the moment said it all.
Before we get to the final list, some honorable mentions that were gruelingly difficult to leave out but need to be recognized:
Magic Johnson’s baby sky hook over the Celtics in Game 4 of the 1987 Finals, Reggie Miller’s eight points in nine seconds to down the Knicks in 1995, John Stockton’s buzzer-beater against the Rockets to send the Jazz to the 1997 Finals, Allen Iverson stepping over Ty Lue in the 2001 Finals…
… Dwyane Wade leading the Heat from down 0-2 to win the 2006 championship, Dirk Nowitzki’s game-winning layup in Game 2 of the 2011 Finals, LeBron James’ chase-down block in the 2016 Finals, Damian Lillard waiving bye-bye to the Thunder in the first round of the 2019 playoffs, Kawhi Leonard’s 2019 buzzer-beater vs the 76ers to send the Raptors to the Eastern Conference finals…
… and Giannis Antetokounmpo going 17 for 19 from the free-throw line on his way to 50 points in Game 6 of the 2021 Finals.
Phew! Alright, without further ado, here are the five greatest mic drop moments in NBA playoffs history.
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5. Game 6 Klay is born in 2015 Western Conference Finals
I remember rewatching the fourth quarter of this game the next morning just to make sure that what I saw wasn’t a dream.
Down 3-2 to the Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook Thunder, the 73-win Warriors were facing an unthinkable elimination after dropping Games 3 and 4. They won Game 5 by making 21 of 44 3-pointers, but momentum had definitely flipped.
The Warriors went into the fourth quarter down eight. Curry was struggling. Klay Thompson told reporters after the game that Steph pulled him aside going into the fourth quarter and told him, “This is your time.”
Thompson scored 19 points in the fourth quarter on 6 for 9 shooting, including 5 for 6 from 3-point range. He outscored the Thunder by himself, 19-18, in the fourth. He’d make one, then make another, then another. He made four 3s in the first seven minutes to snatch back momentum that had been missing for nearly a week. Thompson's 3 with 1:35 remaining put the Warriors up 104-101. They tied the series and won Game 7 to go to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in an epic seven games.
But it was here that Thompson emerged from the shadow of Steph Curry and “Game 6 Klay” was born. Six years later, he scored 30 points in Game 6 of the semi-finals over the Grizzlies en route to Golden State’s championship. His performance in 2016 also ended the Kevin Durant era in Oklahoma City – and started in Golden State.
4. Larry Bird’s steal in 1987 Eastern Conference finals
By ‘87, Larry Bird was a certified legend. Three championships. Three MVPs. Reigning champion. But by then, he and the Celtics were considered old. Many wondered if they could still muster what it took to return to the Finals.
Here’s what’s written on NBA.com from their series that looked back at some of the top moments in playoff history.
“Playing the young, tough-as-nails Detroit Pistons in the 1987 Eastern Conference finals, the aging Celtics were in danger of losing Game 5, which would have given the Pistons a chance to clinch the series at home in Game 6.”
(Bird was only 30, by the way.)
Anyway, the Celtics were down by a point with just seconds remaining. The Pistons had the ball and Isiah Thomas was set to inbound from the sideline. Thomas tossed it up to Bill Laimbeer under the basket when Bird came out of nowhere and ripped the ball out of the air. His momentum should have carried him out of bounds, but he somehow balances himself on the baseline and pitches the ball back to Dennis Johnson streaking to the basket. Johnson laid it up in the final second, and the Celtics won, 108-107.
“I never saw him run that fast,” Thomas said of Bird years later.
The Celtics went on to win the series and advance to their fourth straight NBA Finals, where they lost to the Lakers. But the rabbit-out-of-a-hat routine proved that Bird and the Celtics weren’t quite done yet.
3. Kobe to Shaq, Game 7 of 2000 Western Conference finals
Led by 21-year-old Kobe Bryant and 27-year-old Shaquille O’Neal, the Lakers entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed. After dispatching the Kings and Suns, they took a 3-1 series lead over the Trail Blazers in the Western Conference finals. It seemed like the season’s best team was going to cruise to their first Finals, but then they dropped two straight to set up a Game 7.
People questioned whether young Kobe was all he was hyped up to be and if Shaq took the game seriously enough to be a champion. The Lakers trailed by 15 points with 10 ½ minutes remaining in Game 7 and were on the verge of one of the worst meltdowns in league history.
Instead, the Lakers rallied behind Shaq and Kobe and mounted a fierce comeback.
Kobe had nine points in the fourth quarter. Shaq did, too. The final two points came on a famous lob from Kobe. Shaq leaped and smashed the ball down with one hand to put the Lakers up six with 40 seconds to go. It was the rim-rattling dagger that sent the Lakers back to the Finals for the first time since 1991. They went on to beat the Pacers and win the first of three straight championships.
More importantly, that lob announced that we were officially in the Shaq and Kobe era. Watching Kobe and Shaq run roughshod over a poor Blazers team that had been lulled into a sense of security, it was impossible to imagine how anybody could beat them. They were more than unbeatable, they seemed inevitable.
2. LeBron James in Game 6 of 2012 Eastern Conference finals
For my money, the best recollection of LeBron’s legendary Game 6 performance that saved the Big 3 Heat and paved the road to LeBron’s first title was from a Celtics fan. You’ve probably read Bill Simmons’ account from that night by now, but here’s a refresher 13 years later:
"If you've ever been in the building for one of those games, you know there isn't a deadlier sound. He single-handedly murdered one of the giddiest Celtics crowds I can remember. Thirty points in the first half. Thirty! All with that blank look on his face. It was like watching surveillance video of a serial killer coldly dismembering a body and sticking the parts in the fridge. Only we were right there."
As a Heat fan, my experience was very different. Maybe the Celtics crowd was giddy, but every Heat fan was nervous. Down 3-2 to the most-hated team in the NBA outside of Miami. This whole experiment was on the line. Not only was LeBron at risk of looking stupid for his decision, but all of us were too for celebrating it. My heart was in my throat. I had that feeling of not wanting to watch your kicker attempt a game-winning field goal, only I had it before the ball was even tipped.
Then I saw LeBron’s look, and the game started. A LeBron dunk. A LeBron jumper. Another jumper. A layup. A 3-pointer. Another jumper. Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh. He had 14 of Miami’s 26 points in the first quarter and the Heat had a double-digit lead. Within minutes, LeBron had swallowed up every storyline he came in with and replaced it with a performance that changed his narrative. Nobody ever faced more pressure in a single NBA game than LeBron on that night, and he responded by telling everyone watching that he was one of the greatest to ever do it.
1. Michael Jordan’s game-winner of 1998 Finals
I thought about putting Mike’s switch-hand layup in Game 2 of the 1991 Finals on this list. It was the signature moment of the Bulls' first championship, a five-game cakewalk over the Los Angeles Lakers that announced Michael Jordan as the NBA’s top dog. But that was less of a mic drop than Jordan grabbing the mic from Magic Johnson and beating him in a rap battle like Rabbit taking down Papa Doc.
For the greatest mic drop moment in NBA playoff history, we need to fast forward seven years to Game 6 of the 1998 Finals. Bulls vs Jazz. Jordan had already won five championships and, at 35, was going for his sixth.
The Bulls never faced an elimination game in the Finals but were looking at a potential Game 7 on the road when John Stockton’s 3 gave Utah an 86-83 lead with 41 seconds remaining. Those 41 seconds belonged to Jordan. First, he beat Byron Russell for a layup. Then he stole the ball from Karl Malone in the post. With Chicago down one, 10 seconds to go, Jordan squared up against Russell, drove right, pushed off (he did) and pulled up for the go-ahead shot.
We’ve all seen the video of the ball splashing through the net. Jordan’s hand raised as he held the follow-through with 5.2 seconds left.
Stockton missed a 3 at the other end, and that was it. Jordan and the Bulls completed their second three-peat.
"Who knows what will unfold in the next several months," NBC’s Bob Costas said on the broadcast, "but that may have been the last shot Michael Jordan will ever take in the NBA."
It was. (Well, it wasn’t.) What a way to go out.