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“Quick Work” – Custom Digital Series
Basketball is already a race against the clock, but some players find themselves amping up that urgency within the flow of the game and ending up in the history books as a result. Whether it’s Devin Booker’s 51-point second half in 2017, Russell Westbrook’s 11-assist quarter in 2021 or more compressed feats like Tracy McGrady’s 13 points in 33 seconds to steal a win in 2004, this custom series dives into player and team accomplishments that seem improbable given the amount of time that elapsed.
Vincent Goodwill reflects on Tracy McGrady’s miraculous 13 points in 33 seconds to lift his Houston Rockets over the vaunted San Antonio Spurs on December 9, 2004. Although the moment is obviously synonymous with T-Mac, the roller-coaster nature of his Hall of Fame career makes it even richer.
Nikola Jokiċ has put up at least 10 triple-doubles every year for the past nine seasons. But his most impressive one came all the way back in his third season – in fourteen and a half minutes on the court. Before he was an All-Star (and long before he was an MVP and champion), Jokic beat the record for fastest triple-double by two and a half minutes. Nobody’s come close since, but with triple-doubles occurring both more quickly and more frequently than ever before, the record might not be safe forever.
Isaiah Thomas always maintained that he just needed a chance. The last pick in the 2011 draft was pigeonholed as a microwave bench scorer on dreadful Sacramento Kings teams, then languished as the third point guard with the Phoenix Suns. When he was traded to the Boston Celtics, the fans didn’t realize they were getting their most prolific scorer since Larry Bird. In 2016-17, IT out dominated the fourth quarter in a way no player had before or since, earning the Game of Thrones-inspired moniker “The King in the Fourth.” His heroics in the clutch, despite his struggles with injury and personal tragedy, are not just worth remembering, but a clear example how much 12 minutes of hoops can change a season and an entire career.
We all know the 2016 NBA Finals was one of the best ever, but the W’s championship series that year was a bona fide classic in its own right. Never has a second of game time meant more in a series that featured a game-winning buzzer-beater in Game 1, game-altering missed calls on an eight-second violation and shot clock violation to help both teams extend the series and a championship-winning shot with three seconds left in the decisive Game 5. It’s exactly the kind of razor-thin margin you’d expect in a series that pitted the two best teams in the league, with 14 All-Stars between them, and it still hasn’t been topped despite this decade of explosive growth for women’s hoops.