Gilbert Arenas

The Washington Wizards had not won a playoff series since 1982, and down 0-2 in the first round against the Chicago Bulls, that drought was threatening to stretch another year. On May 4, 2005, Gilbert Arenas hit a 16-foot fadeaway at the buzzer to give Washington a 112-110 Game 5 victory, seizing the series lead and setting up a closeout the Wizards would deliver in Game 6. Arenas was the kind of player who wanted the ball in his hands when everything was on the line, and on this night he proved exactly why. He had emerged as one of the most dynamic and unconventional scoring guards in the Eastern Conference, a player who had gone taken 31st overall and turned the chip on his shoulder into a career's worth of premium offense. Washington won the series in six, their first playoff series victory in 23 years, and the franchise finally had proof that the postseason ambitions Arenas had been promising were something more than talk.