Game 5 of the 1976 NBA Finals - The Greatest Show Ever

The National Basketball Association has millions of fans around the world, and the geography of its popularity is only going up. The reason for this is the thousands of times that basketball in the United States of America has been the most exciting in the world. The intrigue of the league has unraveled in the last seconds so many times that there is not a person in the world who remembers all such moments. This makes it difficult to determine the greatest game in NBA history. But certainly one of the contenders is game number 5 in the finals of the 1975/1976 season. The series was played at 2:2 victories between Phoenix and Boston. The upcoming clash will largely decide the champion, although the series is played to 4 wins from 7 games. The date is June 4th, and the arena of the fight is Boston. Legendary commentator Rick Barry said on air, "This is the most exciting basketball game I've ever seen in my life." But why?

The Finals series pits the long established Boston Celtics team against the relatively young Phoenix Suns organization. The "Suns" rose on the historical map less than a decade earlier, and for them there is a first direct sport for the title. Game #5 in question goes through 3 overtimes and has enough twists and turns for an entire series.

One of them is in the second sequel. Phoenix has a point lead with 4 seconds left. John Havlicek of Boston scores after a difficult performance from about 5 meters and hundreds of Celtic fans are on the floor. Relatively quickly the order is restored because there is one second to the end. Phoenix coach Paul Westphal calls for a timeout, but his team doesn't get one. Of course Westphal knows this very well. According to the rules at the time, this is a technical foul, which also brings a point to the home team's asset and the difference becomes 2 points. But after him, Phoenix gets the right to restart the game from the center.

Gar Hurd receives a pass, turns and scores at the buzzer to send the game into a third overtime. In it, a significant part of the stars of both teams are out due to accumulated violations. In a similar situation, Glenn MacDonald breaks out for the Celtics. Only in what turned out to be the last part, he scored 6 points and brought his Boston an exhausting victory with 128:126. Two days later, the Celtics defeated Phoenix by a far more convincing 87:80 and won their 13th NBA title, an all-time NBA record at the time. Decades later, great organizations like the Chicago Bulls and Golden State Warriors have just 6 titles each, with only the Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers ahead of them with 17. The Suns miss out on their first such title opportunity. The next finals they played in was in 1993, to take us to 2021. So far, all attempts remain unsuccessful and the Suns are the organization with the most finals battles lost without winning a title.