NBA: Ranking the top 10 moments of the decade
2. Kawhi Leonard hits the NBA’s first-ever Game 7 series-winning buzzer-beater in the 2019 playoffs
Before the start of 2019, the Toronto Raptors took a massive gamble by trading franchise icon DeMar DeRozan who had repeatedly faltered in the playoffs for Kawhi Leonard, a superstar and finals MVP who wanted out of the San Antonio Spurs so he could return to his native Los Angeles.
The Spurs did not honor this request and sent him packing north of the border with rumors at the start of the year saying Leonard could choose to sit out the whole season. However, Leonard gave it his all and led the Raptors to the playoffs. Leonard never committed to staying in Toronto once and had deep family ties in Los Angeles.
The Raptors were a franchise of consistent disappointment whether it was Vince Carter leaving, the mediocrity of the mid-2000s before Bosh left (including being known as the team Kobe dropped 81 on) and then constant flame-outs in the playoffs where Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan looked nothing like their regular season all-star selves.
The most heartbreaking disappointment of all may have been in the second round of the playoffs 18 years earlier when Vince Carter’s Raptors were playing in Game 7 against Allen Iverson’s 76ers as Vince Carter missed a shot at the buzzer that could have won the series. Fast forward from 2001 to 2019, and after Jimmy Butler hit a shot with 4.2 seconds left for the 76ers making it look like the Raptors would go into overtime and blow it again.
Kawhi Leonard had a chance to exorcise all of the Raptors playoff demons by recreating and succeeding in this signature moment.
There is nothing more exciting in sports than a Game 7 and there is nothing more exciting in basketball than a game-winning last-second buzzer-beater. However, these two moments had never been combined for a Game-7 series-winning buzzer-beater in NBA history until the Raptors faced off against the 76ers in a scenario eerily similar to what happened in 2001, but this time it was Kawhi Leonard who had the last shot.
With four seconds left Kawhi has the ball at the top of the 3-point line with Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons chasing him as he dribbles to the right. Kawhi is near the baseline fading backward to the right as he lifts up for an improbably high-arcing mid-range two-point shot with Embiid’s massive, outstretched arm right in his face.
The buzzer went off with the ball in the air as Kawhi Leonard seemingly broke the concept of time. Kawhi watched the ball bounce once and joined in with the fans with his jaw dropped squatting on the ground as the ball bounced a second time wondering if it would go in. The ball bounced on the rim a third time as the moment became more unrealistic than the end of a movie like when Michael Jordan extended his arm in slow motion to beat the Monstars at the buzzer or the last shot in the 2002 movie Like Mike starring Lil’ Bow Wow when the final shot goes into slow motion before swishing through the hoop.
As the ball bounced a fourth time and went in this became more unrealistic than a movie as Kawhi roared while being hugged by teammates and the city of Toronto went absolutely wild. The fact that they won their first franchise championship exorcizing 25 years of disappointment while Kawhi simultaneously killed his second dynasty (LeBron left the Heat in 2014 after Kawhi’s Spurs beat them while Kevin Durant fled Golden State for the Brooklyn Nets after Kawhi’s Raptors beat them this year) makes this whole story that much more legendary, but this shot will always be this story’s greatest moment.