Every player with a long career has experienced amazing triumphs and agonizing defeats. What is remarkable is that if you ask most athletes about those events years later, most will admit that the losses stay with them and are more impactful than the wins.
After this year’s NCAA Championship game, Kentucky coach John Calipari could only talk about the missed opportunities. His team missed free throws, turned the ball over or missed shots at crucial times. He rarely mentioned the tremendous play of his opponent, only that his team gave the championship away.
For every Christian Laettner buzzer beater, Immaculate Reception, or other heart-stopping crazy finish, there is a losing team who’s history was changed.
And every fan knows the experience of watching a game slip away play by play. Each missed shot, turnover, or ball that slips through a players hands creates death by slow torture. For it is never the Hail Mary or buzzer beater that is the reason one team wins or loses. It is merely the last thing that people remember.
Why don’t they keep running the fast break? Why aren’t their picks working? Why are you going to a prevent defense so early?
Fans wonder through eternity why you can’t control momentum, or why foul shots are so hard to make.
Believe me, players look back and wonder the same thing. For each close loss, there are 20 or more plays that could have changed the outcome. Players agonize over those plays for the rest of their lives.
I remember when Larry Bird’s Celtics finally beat the Lakers to win the NBA Championship. He commented that he was glad they won so he could make Magic suffer like he did when the Lakers beat the Celtics earlier. Really, that was what stood out?
I have been in many memorable games myself, and some just stick out more than others. Some are games of legend.
March 7, 1981: Syracuse wins the first Big East Tournament in 3 overtimes. It still ranks among the best games in Big East history. I was the starting center and Player of the Game. My roommate, Leo Rautins, tipped a ball in to give us the final lead with 3 seconds to go. Rollie Massamino called an extra timeout and got T’d. I make the free throw to seal the win, as the 3-point shot was not a rule yet. Pandemonium!
But it can’t erase the sting of February 12, 1980: Syracuse-Georgetown play the last game in Manley Field House before the opening of the Carrier Dome. As one of the greatest home courts in college basketball, we had a 57-game winning streak spanning 4 seasons heading in. We led the entire game but as happens, the game slipped away at the end. Georgetown was big and physical but we know that we let the game get away. John Thompson utters the famous words “Manley Field House is officially closed!” Most people credit this game for igniting the Big East into becoming the most dominant basketball conference of the time.
December 13, 1983: The highest scoring game in NBA history. To this day people ask how we managed to score 184 points in a game AND LOSE! It is one of the most talked-about games of the era. Two teams played tremendous offense, were both in the zone and ran like hell. The game went into triple overtime and was full of amazing moments. My Nuggets actually led during all three overtimes and the game was finally won at the foul line. Both teams had dozens of chances to win during the game. Detroit tied the game during one overtime by needing to throw the ball off the rim on a last second free throw and getting the put back. The score for the 15 minutes of overtimes was 41-39! So much for slowing it down. Boy did it suck to lose that game.
The 1995 Playoffs: Phoenix-Houston. It was the second round of the playoffs and we won Game 4 in Houston to go ahead 3-1 with the home court advantage. We ended up losing both Games 5 and 7 at home on buzzer beaters. In Game 7 Mario Elie got open in the corner with seconds to play, and I have Hakeem underneath. I am the closest guy, but how do I rotate and leave Hakeem open? I fake and wave my arms and finally run at him as he goes into his motion ready to jump for the pass. He hits the 3 with me in his face to win it. The Suns that year were poised to win it all. Galactic disappointment!
“HAVLICEK STOLE THE BALL!”: One of the most famous moments in NBA history is when the Celtics beat the 76ers in the 1965 Eastern Conference Finals. With 5 seconds to go in Game 7 the 76ers had the ball under their own basket but on the inbounds pass, John Havlicek stepped in and knocked the ball away to seal the one-point win. While the play features one of the greatest radio calls in history, very few people remember who the other team was. It turns out that the coach of the other team was the NBA reigning Coach of the Year, my father, Dolph Schayes. After that play he had the “honor” of being the only coach to be fired after winning Coach of the Year honors the same year — something that George Karl finally duplicated a year ago.
I don’t want anyone to get the wrong impression. My career is filled with tremendous wins, game-winning shots, and standing ovations. Over the years the sting of the big losses diminishes but never goes away. There are some games that are so historic that just playing in them is amazing. But in the end, losing sucks.
Players need to learn to appreciate the great moments, good and bad. But for John Calipari and the Wildcats, it will be a while.
Danny Schayes is a retired 18-year-veteran of the NBA, a professional broadcaster and soon-to-be-published author now penning NBA columns for SheridanHoops. Follow him on Twitter.
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What about the office parties many of us has to attend.
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