West's Clutch Shot.

West's Clutch Shot. One of the most spectacular moments in basketball player Jerry West's career on the court occurred in 1970, in the last seconds of a playoff finals game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks. . West Sinks 60 Footer When Jerry West was growing up in West Virginia, he often found solace shooting the basketball by himself. A bit of a loner, he spent hours with the hoop, firing jump shots in games he created in his head. "It was amazing to me," he told Sports Illustrated in 1990, "how many times in those imaginary games there'd be one second left, my team one point down, and me with the ball...." To those who followed West's long and successful career, it was uncanny how often when the game was on the line, West took control. "If you remember West at the end of the game, you remember a man who demanded the ball," Sports Illustrated once wrote. "They called him Mr. Clutch for the way he took charge." West, a guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, took that control in the memorable and amazing game three of the 1970 National Basketball Association (NBA) finals. The Lakers faced the Knicks, and the first two games were played in New York. The Knicks took game one, 124-112, but the Lakers bounced back with a 105-103 victory in game two. West scored 33 points in game one. He scored 34 points in game two, including two free throws with 46 seconds remaining to ice the victory. Game three, on April 29 in Los Angeles, was a wild affair. Keith Erickson closed the first half with a 40-foot basket that gave the Lakers a 56-42 lead. The Knicks rallied furiously in the second half to take the lead. Wilt Chamberlain hit one of two free throws to tie the game, 100-100, with 13 seconds left. The Knicks called a time-out and diagrammed a play designed to brush Bill Bradley past a screen for a jump shot. "We hit it, we win the ballgame--no question," Knicks forward Dave DeBusschere recalled thinking, according to Microsoft Complete NBA Basketball. As the play progressed, Bradley was unable to get free. Walt "Clyde" Frazier instead passed to DeBusschere, who gave a head fake. His opponent, Happy Hairston, didn't buy it, so DeBusschere just raised up and nailed a jumper from left of the free-throw line. The Knicks led, 102-100, with three seconds left, and the Lakers looked stunned. With no time-outs remaining they paused momentarily, but when Chamberlain grabbed the ball for the inbounds pass, there was West, demanding the leather. He dribbled left and shifted right as he passed the foul line to elude Willis Reed, who attempted to shadow him. The rest of the Knicks were guarding the Lakers' basket. "I turned and ran as fast as I could to the other end of the court," DeBusschere recalled, "because I figured the only thing they could do was throw a long pass." Dribbling with his right hand, West took a stride past the top of the key up the center of the court and launched a kind of running push shot, landing with his feet just inside the midcourt circle. Although he covered almost half the court in a matter of seconds, he did so methodically, appearing almost calm, as if he had practiced the maneuver before. Clyde Frazier recalled watching a confident West and thinking, "The man's crazy. He looks determined. He thinks it's really going in." The shot from 63 feet swished through the net cleanly. "I was looking up at that basket, directly underneath it," said Dave DeBusschere, whose jump shot seconds earlier had seemingly won the game for New York. "This can't happen; this can't be. I just sank and fell down." The Lakers lost the game in overtime and eventually lost the series, but West's shot added a spectacular element to what proved to be among the NBA's most celebrated finals ever. The remarkable shot also went down in history as a defining moment for one of the best players in NBA history, Jerry West. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.