Great sports moments happen all the time. Texas Tech's Jarrius Jackson hitting a buzzer-beater to upset No. 6 Texas A&M Tuesday, West Virginia taking it to then-No. 2 UCLA Saturday, the list goes on and on. But it's the truly fantastic moments that always stick with you. So without further ado, here are my five favorite sports moments over the years.
Game Six, 1993 NBA Finals
Being born in Illinois the year after Michael Jordan was drafted made it hard not to be a Bulls fan, at least for a while. Watching their quest for a three-peat in the NBA Finals in 1993 was amazing as it pitted league MVP Charles Barkley against MJ in one of the more contested of the six Bulls titles. The triple-overtime Game 3 certainly ranks with the best Finals games of all time, but you can't beat Game 6 when it comes to drama.
Chicago was up in the series 3-2 at home, but trailed by two with five seconds in the game and faced a Game 7 on the road. That's when a goggled Horace Grant passed to a surpisingly open sharpshooter John Paxson, who drilled a three to give the Bulls the game and the series. I recall literally jumping up and down after the shot went in, that was one of the highlights of my little 8-year-old life.
Timberwolves' win
After moving to Minnesota, the Timberwolves turned into my team of choice, and they still have not lost any game I have attended (I obviously haven't gone to one in a while). But the best T-Wolves game I went to was in 2000. One of my friends got me suite tickets to a game against the Pacers, and it was a great back-and-forth game until Mark Jackson seemingly sealed an Indiana win with a jumper to put them up two with 1.7 seconds left. But nobody told Malik Sealy (who would tragically die in a car accident only four months later), as he banked home a 3-pointer to give Minnesota the victory. The whole building jumped for joy in unison as Sealy was mobbed by his teammates. That game remains my favorite live sports fan experience.
2001 Final Four
As weird as it was watching college basketball in the Metrodome, I got to enjoy the first two games of the 2001 Final Four live and not-so-up-close. While neither game went the way I wanted it to, as Michigan State was soundly beaten by Arizona and Maryland somehow blew a 22-point lead to Duke, they were both great games and it was fantastic just to be at a Final Four.
1998 Stanley Cup win
I could pick a million favorite moments from the great Red Wings teams from the past 12 years. There's a triple-overtime win over Carolina in the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals that is still the best hockey game I've ever seen, any victory over the hated Colorado Avalanche in the playoffs, any fight that Claude Lemieux lost and many more. But the sweetest victory came after the Game Four win over the Capitals gave them the Stanley Cup.
Vladimir Konstantinov was a fantastic defenseman for the Wings from 1991-'97 and helped them to win their 1997 Stanley Cup. But a week after their win in 1997, Konstantinov's car was hit by a drunk driver, leaving him in a coma for weeks. Konstantinov sustained brain damage and was wheelchair-bound from the accident. Detroit wore a patch for him the following season, and in a scene that brought even the most hardened fan to tears, Konstantinov joined the Wings on the ice for the Cup ceremony.
1997 Super Bowl win
Obviously, this has to be No. 1. An MVP season for Brett Favre, both the offense and defense being ranked No. 1 in the NFL and a Super Bowl victory. One-year wonder Desmond Howard wins the Super Bowl MVP and troubled wideout Andre Rison catches a long touchdown pass on one of the first plays of the game. Those were the good ol' days.
Honorable mention:
The Timberwolves' run to the conference championship, the Twins' run to clinch the division last season.
Dishonorable mention:
Mike Tyson biting Evander Holyfield's ear, Sterling Sharpe's career-ending injury, Terrell Owens' catch in the 1999 playoffs and fourth-and-26 (Packers fans know what that means, sorry for bringing it up again).
Hopefully 2007 will bring another couple of events to add to this list. Wisconsin men's basketball, I'm looking in your direction.
Share your favorite sports moments with Zach by e-mailing him at zlkukkonen@dailycardinal.com.
