What is YOUR favorite NY Moment??
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by user Manny Stiles
From the shameleast guy who brought you O!F, this nonsense, Are you a CD? and the Pete Rose Game comes another head shakingly intelligence insulting statistic know simply as the NY Moment or NY for short.
NY Moments only happen now and then, usually when you are NOT ready for it. Things seem to be going in one direction, then WHAM - EVERYTHING GOES WRONG!!! OH, NO!!!!!, But wait! Somehow, someway... EVERYTHING GOES RIGHT!!!! YES!!!!!
That's what the NY Moment is... The NO!!! YES!!! Moment! (see, this where you needed to read to before you went and posted comments about New York and I strongly advise we ridicule anyone who posts a comment that demonstrates their inability to apply reading conprehension skills before popping off...)
While maybe not the best NY Moment ever, my personal favorite NY Moment came on April 19th, 2003 in the very first game of the first round of the 2003 NBA Playoffs as #1 seed San Antonio Spurs hosted the upstart #8 seed Phoenix Suns. My wife was 7 months pregnant and we'd been to several games that season. The game was in San Antonio so we watched from home on TV.
No one gave the Suns a chance against the Spurs (and for good reason) but the Suns didn't just roll over. They came out in Game One inspired and determined to silence the bevy of critics. The game was tight and the seconds were running down... the Suns had the ball, down 3 and with 10 seconds left and had a chance to tie the game.
Now it's time for a little background on the 2003 Suns. Stephon Marbury was still All-Star good in Phoenix, a trade was made earlier in the year to bring Joe Johnson in and it was Amare Stoudemire's rookie year. Amare was learning to become an inside force and was a natural athletic freak during his Rookie of the Year season, but he did NOT have a jumper at all. They weren't the running "Suns" you know and love yet, but the seeds were planted with talented youth...
So with :10 left on the clock, the idea was to get the ball to Stephon since he was the vet on this young team and the go-to scorer. The inbounds came to Steph, he tried to get to the corner for a three but was double teamed and he threw the ball out to the only guy he could see who was standing beyong the arc... OOps! He threw it to Amare (who made only TWO 3pt shots all year - one was a halftime buzzer half-court prayer shot).
Amare had the ball and he was standing in 3-and-a-half-point land and with over 2 seconds left, instead of passing to a shooter, he chucked the ball at the basket like there was a transmittable disease on it!!! What the hell was he doing?? I jumped up and down and screamed "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"
Then it happened... before I got done screaming "NO", SMACK-SWISH!!!! Al McCoy (the TV announcer at the time) shouted his trademark "Shazam!!!!"
Amare clank-banked it in!!!!! To this day, I don't know how the ball didn't go right through the backboard! It was so fugly and so beautiful at the same time!
"YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!"
The game went to overtime! The Suns eventually won on another exhilarating buzzer-beating Three by Marbury that was every bit as amazing! My wife was jumping up and down and almost gave birth that moment. But that was a "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!" Moment as he nailed the three and ran off the court, arms extended, like he was an airplane taking off and laughing in disbelief that he made the shot! 95-94 Game OVER!(Of course, the Suns lost the series 4-2)
But the ultimate NY moment was sealed... From "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" to "YOU'RE AWESOME" within one breath. Maybe it takes a lot of luck or screwing something up first, but the NY moment is one of my favorite events in sports.
Other famous NY moments could include the Colts-Steelers game (a little extended of a NY Moment) last year (Bettis fumble, Vanderjagt miss), the Miracle at the Meadowlands, A.J. Pierzynski's steal of first base, Bill Buckner's W.S. Error...
Just don't get the NY Moment confused with the YN Moment... there are no winners of the YN moment... these are the plays no one can root for. Imagine your team wins the Conference championship on a play that your 2 best players get hurt on the same play, killing the championship hopes, that's a YN moment.
The best documented YN Moment is also one of my favorite TV commercials ever called "The Mood Swing" for Heineken: It's slow motion of some fans jumping out of their seats to cheer and the guy in the middle gets his Heiney spilled... Ultimate YN moment - it just sucks. (Play it in reverse and it's a NY Moment!)
So, what is YOUR favorite NY Moment???
