Take that, world!
2013 Eastern Conference finals, game 2
With 5.5 seconds left in the third quarter of the second game of the Eastern Conference Finals with the Miami Heat leading the Indiana Pacers 1-0 in the series, but the Pacers leading the Heat in the game 73-71, Paul George dunked on Chris Andersen.
It sounds so anticlimactic when written that way. Although completely factual, it doesn’t remotely encapsulate the moment. To more accurately describe this two-point bucket completed by George at the expense of both LeBron James and Andersen, one needs to use some extrapolation.
Let’s begin with Chris Andersen. Andersen, the Birdman, spent many hours both on the practice court and in the tattoo parlor, artistically and physically modifying himself to become a visual palette of intimidation.
Miami had signed Andersen as such. Lord knows they didn’t need him for his offense. They needed him to be the muscle, the tough guy, the exact guy you would hesitant about trying to, I don’t know, dunk on. Then Paul George drove down the left side of the lane, thrusted off the earth via his left foot and, while not quite literally certainly figuratively, killed the myth of the fearsome Birdman.
Next, not all dunks are created equal. Some dunks are completely unimpressive, the type that make the beholder think: “If I was 7-feet tall, I could do that too.”
Some are the complete opposite, so startling that you can’t really comprehend what you saw, even after you’ve seen it many, many times.
Then there are some dunks that are so graceful that they inspire something akin to awe.
Then there are some dunks that inspire something akin to terror.
George’s dunk was more like Shawn Kemp’s, just a stunning display of ferocity that manifested itself out of nowhere.
The last point is on George himself. This dunk symbolized all the hope that the 2013 Pacers and George, specifically, represented, and none of it was fully actualized in Indiana. This iteration of the Pacers quickly crumbled, though more talented in 2014, they folded uninspiringly and meekly to the same Miami Heat team they had stood up to and dunked on the year before.
For George, while his athletic gifts were never questioned, he was soon thrust into a leadership role he was never comfortable in. George then forced a nasty exit from Indiana that ended up working out extremely well for both George and the Pacers.
But in a singular moment of athletic brilliance, none of the future fall-outs could be foreseen, and all that was on display was a burgeoning star thundering down on an established superteam. For the rest of us, well, we’ll always have that night in Miami.