![]() ![]() The Free buzzer-beater that I most relish was one that did not qualify for the list. Two of them were after Free grabbed offensive rebounds-which Free did, on average, just 1.1 times a game. To no one’s surprise, all four of the Brownsville Bomber’s buzzer-beaters were unassisted, and three of the four were from 20-plus feet. Teams: 76ers, Clippers, Warriors, Cavaliers, Rockets In both instances, he stole the ball from a Hall of Famer (Sam Jones inbounding to Bob Cousy in the 1962 NBA Finals and Hagan in the 1963 Western Division finals) and then scored at the horn to win the game. One of the best things about West’s pair of postseason buzzer-beaters is that they were opportunities he created. ![]() In fact, at the conclusion of the 1963 playoffs, the Logo had half of the four playoff buzzer-beaters in league history. West became the first player to have multiple playoff buzzer-beaters. Unfortunately, it was a Game 7 against Bill Russell, so I don’t have to tell you that Hagan and the Hawks lost. ![]() Hagan tipped in Bob Pettit’s miss to win Game 6 of the 1957 NBA Finals, forcing a Game 7 with the Celtics. His first buzzer-beater (in his rookie season) also happened to be the first buzzer-beater in the history of the NBA playoffs. Louis for Bill Russell, Hagan had a Hall of Fame career and helped lead the Hawks over the Celtics to win the 1958 NBA title. Perhaps best known as one of two players (along with Easy Ed Macauley) traded by the Celtics to St. Hagan, known as Li’l Abner, would be the first of many to match Braun’s record. Seasons: 10 (1956-66 later played three seasons in ABA) Braun was the first NBA player to reach two career buzzer-beaters (1950), and also the first to three (1953) and four (1954). Two of the four shots were described in game recaps at the time as “one-handers,” and the only one with a distance given was a 35-foot set shot he hit after catching an inbounds pass from Ernie Vandeweghe (father to future NBA star Kiki Vandeweghe and a medical student at the time) against the St. We’ll start with 13 players who are tied for 11th most all time with four buzzer-beaters apiece: Four Career Buzzer-Beaters Carl Braunįrom 1950 to 1954, Braun won four games at the horn for the Knicks. (For more on the specifics of the methodology, please see this blog post.) From that, we’re able to determine the NBA’s all-time leaders in buzzer-beaters. There have been 772 such shots, which I’m defining as shots (a) taken with the shooter’s team trailing or tied and (b) that won the game while leaving no time left on the clock. I have compiled a database of every buzzer-beating, game-winning basket in NBA history (including the BAA years, from 1946-47 to 1948-49, since those are included as part of “official” NBA history ABA years, however, are not included) over at, one of the websites for which I am the managing stathead. It’s basketball’s version of the walk-off.īut while baseball fans can tell you that Jim Thome is MLB’s all-time leader in walk-off home runs (13), NBA fans have had to settle for assumptions. the Spurs, Kawhi Leonard’s quadruple-doinker to eliminate the 76ers in last year’s Game 7 of the Eastern semifinals, Damian Lillard’s “bad, bad shot” over Paul George to end last year’s Thunder series, etc. Some of the most indelible moments in basketball history are buzzer-beaters: Jerry West’s 60-footer in the 1970 NBA Finals, Michael Jordan’s “The Shot” over Craig Ehlo, Derek Fisher’s fallaway with 0.4 left vs. NBA basketball provides some of the greatest displays of individual athleticism in team sports, but the ultimate moment is the buzzer-beater: when a player calls game and ends the affair as time runs out. ![]()
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