Comparing the Spurs' epic collapse to 28-3, the worst choke in sports history

Wee-ooo-wee-ooo! It’s the insane choke-job alarm! The San Antonio Spurs have pulled off one of the most inexplicable chokes in the history of sports, surrendering a 29-point lead in Game 4 of the NBA Finals to fall down 3-1 in the series. This is a catastrophe that has our signals firing on every cylinder … sir, our systems are failing, countermeasures ineffective! There’s only one failsafe left, the big red button of doom: is this worse than 28-3? 

In case you live under several rocks, “28-3” refers to the Atlanta Falcons blowing a 28-3 lead to the New England Patriots with seven minutes to go in the third quarter of Super Bowl 51. It is the greatest collapse in the history of sports; it was a singular, impossible event. It has no equal, and it shall have no equal. I quiver to even invoke the name. 

But in Game 4 of the NBA Finals, the Spurs achieved a degree of choke so above normal standards that we have to at least ask the question. And let me tell you, as an expert on these things, you never want to be asking the question.

Round One: Totality of collapse

• Spurs: 29 basketball points with nine minutes left in third quarter
• Falcons: 25 football points with seven minutes left in third quarter

What’s worse?: Falcons

This one is easy. If you just add up the likelihood of each team blowing their respective lead, it’s not even close which one was worse. It is so impossibly difficult to blow a 25-point lead in just under 22 minutes of game time — there aren’t that many scoring opportunities in football, scoring is more difficult and 25 points is four possessions no matter how you slice it. Any competent playcaller should be able to just burn clock and salt that away cough cough Kyle Shanahan. Twenty-nine-point leads have been surrendered in single quarters of basketball; 21 minutes is an eternity. 

The Spurs did, however, execute one of the great in-game turnarounds in basketball quality of all time, going from completely unstoppable to oh-my-god-how-are-you-this-stoppable like someone forgot to put the batteries back in after halftime. It was special stuff, akin to the playcalling disasaterclass of Super Bowl 51. The Spurs looked like they had no idea what they were doing, just content to watch their car get towed for 21 straight minutes. And towed it got.

Round Two: Impact of collapse

• Spurs: Would have tied series 2-2, taken back home court advantage and been favored to win the series
• Falcons: Would have won the Super Bowl; instead, lost the Super Bowl

What’s worse?: Falcons

Again, a fairly straightforward answer, but there is some nuance. Yes, there is technically still a chance the Spurs turn around and win this series and pull off the ultimate UNO-reverse card reversing the Knick’s UNO-reverse comeback on their UNO-reverse after going down 2-0. The Falcons just … lost the Super Bowl. That’s it. It’s over. You don’t get another chance. They have yet to have another chance since.

But it’s also a bit unfair to say that this would have to be an all-or-nothing to measure up, since this was as important a single game could get without being an elimination game or a Game 7. The difference between 3-1 and 2-2 is seismic, and the Spurs effectively took their chances of winning the NBA Finals from likely to nearly impossible in a single game. It’s not losing the Super Bowl outright, but it’s pretty darn close. 

Round Three: Single most damaging moment

• Spurs: De’Aaron Fox inexplicably attempts a layup with his team winning and the shot clock off only for it to get blocked by OG Anunoby
• Falcons: Matt Ryan is sacked out of field goal range by Trey Flowers up 28-20, which would have made it a two-possession game

What's worse?: Spurs

Everyone remembers the Edelman catch, but 28-3 was a death by a thousand cuts. And while there is scholarly disagreement on the matter, I will unflappably hold that the Trey Flowers’ sack on Matt Ryan with 3:56 left in the game, and the ensuing holding penalty, is by far the worst. The game was over — they were on the 23-yard line with a chip-shot field goal after a majestic Julio Jones 27-yard catch. To call a pass play and risk a sack is unconscionable. 

But if you can remove the consequences of losing Game 4 versus losing the Super Bowl, the Fox layup attempt was worse. Watch this, and try to decide for yourself what he’s thinking:

All I got is that Fox thinks he can for sure finish that, which is an easier two points than having to earn it at the line. To which I say my guy OG Anunoby is right there. Under no definition was that layup a gimme, and the Spurs paid the ultimate price. It’s never the comeback itself that hurts the most: it’s that one single moment that you squandered, when you still could have survived, that you remember forever.

Round Four: How bad the fan experience must have been 

• Spurs: The largest, loudest, most famous city in America all dancing on your grave simultaneously with Taylor Swift doing backflips courtside
• Falcons: Watching Arthur Blank’s face slowly melt off on the sideline after he came down from his seats early to accept the trophy

What's worse?: Spurs

This is the money category, and even though the broadcast repeatedly cutting to Falcons’ owner Arthur Blank on the sideline at first smiling, then looking confused, then frowning like someone just knocked over his block tower is arguably my favorite sports viewing experience of all time, the Spurs getting dunked on by the entire city of New York is worse. It’s just so, inarguably worse.

New Yorkers are great people, even Bostonian’s like myself can admit it. Hardworking, intense, always carrying the knowledge that their city can kick your city’s you-know-what. Like Bostonians, they’re also obnoxious in victory. This Madison Square Garden crowd brought another level of pain for any Spurs fan watching at home or God forbid being there in person I mean can you imagine? Taylor Swift, Chalamet, every former Knicks player ever and probably at least 9,000 private equity bros in quarter zips all holding hands and finding peace over your team’s appalling tragedy? Dude.

Round Five: Proximity to other painful moments for franchise

• Spurs: Lost Game 2 five days earlier in horrific fashion, suffering two of the worst losses in NBA history in less than a week
• Falcons: Have never won a Super Bowl nor gotten particularly close in the 21st Century other than exactly then

What's worse?: Falcons

This is a photo finish, but I’m giving the edge to the Falcons given that was their best and only real shot (they got smoked by the 1999 Denver Broncos in their other appearance) at winning the Super Bowl in their entire history. That’s not something you get over, ask the Buffalo Bills and whisper wide right in their ear — you can tell them I sent you.

The Spurs, though, could and plausibly should be up 3-1 in this series had it not been for the pass-to-end-all-passes in Game 2 between Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle. It’s the kind of double disaster that makes you sick to your stomach. You can never unsee this stuff, any fan of any sport can tell you off the dome what the most crushing thing that happened to their franchise was. If that happened to the Celtics, I would throw up. 

Ultimate winner of the worst choke ever by split decision: Falcons 28-3 FIVE, Spurs 29-points FOUR

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