9. 2000 – Los Angeles Lakers over Indiana Pacers (4-2)
A series of what could have been for Indiana and a look into the future for Los Angeles. Starting with the Lakers, they were building around the best player in the game, Shaquille O’Neal, who was the MVP of the 1999-00 season and at the peak of his dominance. However, while we obviously remember Kobe Bryant as one of the best players ever, he wasn’t in peak form at this stage in his career.
This version of Kobe was clearly talented but young and unproven. So unproven in fact, that Bob Costas was questioning whether or not Kobe’s hand size was going to be a limitation throughout his career as if he was talking about Kwame Brown. All of that changed in Game 4.
Game 4 of the 2000 Finals is Kobe’s “I’m here” moment in the NBA. On the road up 2-1 in the series and hobbled with a lower leg injury suffered in game 2 that forced him to miss Game 3, Kobe had to take over the game once Shaq fouled out with three minutes to play in overtime. From that point on Kobe becomes unstoppable and steals a game on the road that virtually ices the series by going up 3-1.
On the other hand, Pacers fans have to still believe they could have won this series because they could have. From Indiana’s point of view, they had a hobbled 21-year-old Kobe playing overtime in their building without Shaq and they couldn’t get the job done. And even after Kobe’s brilliance in the final few minutes, Reggie Miller still had a great look at a game-winning 3 that wouldn’t fall.
It wasn’t just Game 4 though. Indiana played a Kobe-less Lakers team the last three quarters of Game 2 and couldn’t find a way to win. They also led almost the entire time in Game 6 until Shaq went full superhero mode in the fourth quarter. At the end of the day, the Lakers had Shaq and no one else did, but a series that is remembered as not very close was actually anything but.