Derrick Rose hit a spectacular game-winner Friday night against LeBron James and the Cavs. It was difficult not to get swept up in the raw emotion of the moment. The joy of the Chicago crowd was infectious as they finally got to explode in cheers for the hometown boy whose knees had crumbled under the weight of a city. If I were you, I’d read unofficial Derrick Rose historian Ricky O’Donnell about what that shot really meant.
Derrick Rose’s game-winning 3 was incredibly lucky and awesome. Deal with it, haters
If your primary takeaway from a spectacular moment is that Derrick Rose hit a lucky shot, you’re a hopeless, tireless hater and I never want to watch sports with you.
Of course, some people, including professional sports antagonist Skip Bayless, did not enjoy this moment.
DRose just banked in a lucky three to win Game 3.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) May 9, 2015 Technically, what Bayless said is true. Rose's shot was, by definition, lucky. He admitted himself he didn't intend to bank the shot in.
"Them the shots you want to take as a player in my position. ... No, I didn't call glass." Derrick Rose
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) May 9, 2015 The unintentional bank shot is the luckiest thing that regularly happens in sports. For a shot aimed for the hoop to bank in, it has to be way off, both in terms of power and accuracy. It has to miss its intended target by several feet in a game where a shot that's off by inches is a failure. If Rose's shot was short and to the left by the same distance it was long and to the right, we would've laughed about how bad an end-of-game shot it was.
By luck, though, it went through the hoop and counted. Occasionally we see people do things that should lead to failure, but end with success in sports -- a guy swings at strike 3 but the catcher drops it and he gets to first, a should’ve-been-intercepted pass bounces right to a receiver -- but most of the time this luck comes from somebody else’s ineptitude. In the case of a bank shot, the only factor is luck. The only comparable instance I can think of is when a golfer tugs a shot into the woods, but it bounces off a tree and into the fairway.
That said: if your No. 1 takeaway from Derrick Rose’s miracle game-winner is to yell “yeah but he didn’t call glass” -- and you’re not a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, in which case you are 100 percent supposed to say this -- you are a tireless hater, and I cannot help you. These are the moments we should watch sports for, when logic evaporates, and the only way to explain what happened is to show somebody the video.
Derrick Rose’s game-winner was an amazing moment. It was a moment of redemption, a moment of euphoria, a moment where the sport’s biggest superstar was helpless as his team lost, and yes, it was a moment of luck. If the only part that stands out to you is a luck, there is no hope for you.
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