Changing game rhythms make for unforgettable NBA Game 7s

Any Game 7 in any sport is worth watching, of course, so it's ridiculous to compare the relative worth of Game 7s between sports. But ridiculous is what we do, right? So I offer -- predictably -- that the NBA's championship-deciding battles are the best.

I've only covered two in person -- the Lakers beating the Pistons in 1988 and the Spurs beating the Pistons in 2005. When the Lakers finished out-grinding the Pistons in that '88 game, they had finally begun to erase a history of Game 7 futility, having lost five of them (four to the Celtics, one to the Knicks) in the preceding years.

Long before that, though, the NBA had already given us the best Game 7 in history -- the largely-forgotten '57 double-overtime classic at Boston Garden in which the Celtics beat the St. Louis Hawks 125-124. (The game, incidentally, is a snapshot of how things have changed in sport. It was played on April 13 -- if there's a Game 7 in the '09 Finals it will be contested on June 18.)

The lead changed hands dozens of times (which doesn't happen in hockey, nor in baseball for that matter) and all manner of unusual stuff happened. The Celtics' ace backcourt of Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman, for example, combined to make only five of 40 shots. But two rookies named Bill Russell and Tom Heinsohn combined to grab 55 rebounds.

The game also featured one of the most bizarre last plays in sports history. With the Hawks trailing by that final margin in the second overtime and needing to go the length-of-the-court for a game-winning basket, Alex Hannum, the team's player-coach and the last guy left on the bench, checked into the game and took the ball out-of-bounds. With Hawks star Bob Pettit stationed near the basket at the other end, Hannum threw the ball the length of the court and off the backboard, a 94-foot strike. It bounced perfectly into Pettit's hands.

Pettit, perhaps the best all-around player in the league that season, went up for a short jumper. And so there was that second when the ball was in the air. For a longer shot, it takes maybe two seconds. The eyes of every player and every fan are on that ball, spinning toward the basket, the grandest caesura in all of sports, tales told in the climax. This one missed.

And so the Celtics had their first championship, one, in fact, that launched a dynasty that won 10 titles over the next 12 seasons.

FARBER:Joys of Stanley Cup Game 7s

GALLERY:NHL's great Game 7s

ASCHBURNER:Sounds of Game 7

Published Jun 12, 2009 | Modified Jun 12, 2009

JACK MCCALLUM

Special Contributor, Sports Illustrated As a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, it seems obvious what Jack McCallum would choose as his favorite sport to cover. "You would think it would be pro basketball," says McCallum, a Sports Illustrated special contributor, "but it would be anything where I'm the only reporter there because all the stuff you gather is your own." For three decades McCallum's rollicking prose has entertained SI readers. He joined Sports Illustrated in 1981 and famously chronicled the Celtics-Lakers battles of 1980s. McCallum returned to the NBA beat for the 2001-02 season, having covered the league for eight years in the Bird-Magic heydays. He has edited the weekly Scorecard section of the magazine, written frequently for the Swimsuit Issue and commemorative division and is currently a contributor to SI.com. McCallum cited a series of pieces about a 1989 summer vacation he took with his family as his most memorable SI assignment. "A paid summer va-kay? Of course it's my favorite," says McCallum. In 2008, McCallum profiled Special Olympics founder Eunice Shriver, winner of SI's first Sportsman of the Year Legacy Award. McCallum has written 10 books, including Dream Team, which spent six seeks on the New York Times best-seller list in 2012, and his 2007 novel, Foul Lines, about pro basketball (with SI colleague Jon Wertheim). His book about his experience with cancer, The Prostate Monologues, came out in September 2013, and his 2007 book, Seven Seconds or Less: My Season on the Bench with the Runnin' and Gunnin' Phoenix Suns, was a best-selling behind-the-scenes account of the Suns' 2005-06 season. He has also written scripts for various SI Sportsman of the Year shows, "pontificated on so many TV shows about pro hoops that I have my own IMDB entry," and teaches college journalism. In September 2005, McCallum was presented with the Curt Gowdy Award, given annually by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for outstanding basketball writing. McCallum was previously awarded the National Women Sports Foundation Media Award. Before Sports Illustrated, McCallum worked at four newspapers, including the Baltimore News-American, where he covered the Baltimore Colts in 1980. He received a B.A. in English from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa. and holds an M.A. in English Literature from Lehigh University. He and his wife, Donna, reside in Bethlehem, Pa., and have two adult sons, Jamie and Chris.

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