Exactly one week ago, the aura surrounding UCLA basketball was a bleak one.
Today, there’s hope, there’s swagger, even some confidence.
Amazing what a buzzer-beater can do.
While it’s been downplayed against the greater context of the season by the man himself, Mustafa Abdul-Hamid’s last-second game-winner against Washington last Thursday has vaulted him into an iconic pantheon of surprising hoops heroes, those right-place-at-the-right-time guys whose shots are memorialized by “One Shining Moment” montages.
As the campus still sizzles from Abdul-Hamid’s shot, and as we near the 15th anniversary of the most famous game-winner in UCLA history ““ Tyus Edney’s coast-to-coast layup to beat Missouri in the second round of the 1995 NCAA tournament ““ I feel obligated to reflect on one of sports’ greatest gifts to mankind, right up there with NHL playoff overtime and all-you-can-eat seats: the buzzer-beater.
Few scenarios have been as inspiring or as mimicked across America as the basketball game-winner, a play that has helped the combination of crumpled-up paper and wastebaskets maintain relevance, and that’s transformed hoop-laden driveways across the land into Oz-like dreamworlds rife with last-second glory.
A fascination with buzzer-beaters has changed the way I throw away trash, or the manner in which I respond to a bell signaling class to start. No more casually tossing something in a bin; instead it’s, “Three … two … one!” and shoot. No more sauntering into a classroom late; instead it’s a race to get my rear end in the seat before the final toll of the bell.
One of the reasons that buzzer-beaters have become so iconic is due to their magnetic association to sports’ most exciting event, March Madness, and vice versa.
Sure, there have been spectacular shots at the horn in regular season games (see: the Nets’ Devin Harris’ half-court prayer last season), but the best of the best are the ones that are laced with significance. Bryce Drew helping Valparaiso slay heavily-favored Ole Miss in 1998, N.C. State knocking off Houston in the 1983 National Championship, and Christian Laettner burying Kentucky in the 1992 Elite Eight are images forever ingrained in the minds of basketball fans.
While other sports feature game-winning opportunities of their own, basketball takes the proverbial cake. The opposing coach can’t call three time-outs to ice a guy rising up to launch a half-court shot at the buzzer.
Following his game-winner against Washington, Abdul-Hamid remarked how having the ball in the final seconds “becomes instinct, and you’re not thinking out there. Just believe.”
His words are a justification for every shot in a gym or a driveway that’s preceded by a countdown. We gluttons of contrived glory who call ourselves hoops aficionados are so keen on achieving such a moment that we rehearse these end-game scenarios to the point of exhaustion. When a guy like Abdul-Hamid gets his chance, the subconscious takes over.
I’d love to expound more on the intricacies of buzzer-beating scenarios and the blessed players whose names are permanently etched in court-storming lore, but my deadline for this article is swiftly approaching. In fact, I submitted it with nary a second left to spare.
If you have an air-horn and a Nerf basketball hoop in your dorm room, e-mail Eshoff at reshoff@media.ucla.edu.