Ray Allen

No other player in NBA history had made more three-pointers. Through eighteen seasons Ray Allen had built the most precise shooting career the game had ever seen, and yet nothing in those years, not the championships in Boston, not the scoring titles, not the record-breaking nights, had placed him in a moment quite like this one. Arena staffers had already lined the baselines at AmericanAirlines Arena with the yellow trophy rope, prepared for the Spurs to clinch a championship on Miami's floor. The scoreboard read 95-92 with 5.2 seconds left in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals and the Heat's season was measured in heartbeats. LeBron James missed a tying three from the left wing. Chris Bosh, outleaping two Spurs defenders, grabbed the offensive rebound and fired it to the right corner where Allen was backpedaling toward the boundary, Tony Parker bearing down on him with everything he had left. Allen set his feet at the line, released the ball over Parker's contest, and watched it fall through to tie the game at 95-95 as the building erupted and the Spurs' celebration dissolved on the spot. Miami won in overtime, won Game 7, and celebrated a second consecutive title on their own court. That Allen shot just one three-pointer all night, connecting on nothing else from deep across an otherwise quiet nine-point performance, only deepens the irony of the moment: the greatest shooter in league history, saving the season on the one attempt that counted. He finished with nine points, two rebounds, one assist and one steal, a stat line that will never tell the full story of what June 18, 2013 meant.

Championship Year