The Craziest NBA Finals Moments Since 2000

The NBA Finals have played host to some of the most iconic moments in league history.

Michael Jordan clinched his sixth championship with a clutch jumper against the Utah Jazz in 1998. Magic Johnson busted out a "junior, junior sky hook" to put his Los Angeles Lakers up 3-1 against the rival Boston Celtics in 1987. And who could ever forget LeBron James' chase-down block on Andre Iguodala in 2016, or Kyrie Irving's pull-up three-pointer that helped the Cleveland Cavaliers complete the first-ever 3-1 comeback in Finals history?

The Finals have also featured plenty of absurdity over the years. Willis Reed played through a torn thigh muscle in 1970 to help the New York Knicks win their first-ever championship. Magic had to fill in for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at center in Game 6 of the 1980 Finals against the Philadelphia 76ers. MJ had "The Flu Game" in 1997.

Those wild moments haven't stopped since the calendar flipped to 2000. In fact, they might have only increased in frequency.

Here, we've compiled the most memorable of the bunch.

Allen Iverson Steps Over Ty Lue (2001)

In 2000-01, the Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal-led Los Angeles Lakers were the NBA's defending champions and went undefeated through the Western Conference playoffs. Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers were only a minor speed bump on their quest for their second of three straight titles, but AI made a lasting imprint in Game 1 of the Finals.

After the Sixers forced overtime, Iverson took over with a personal 7-0 run that put them ahead for good. He punctuated it with a 16-foot jump shot over the outstretched hand of Lakers guard Ty Lue—yes, the now-Los Angeles Clippers head coach—for his 47th and 48th points of the night.

Lue fell to the floor after contesting Iverson's shot and landed directly in Iverson's path. Rather than step around Lue or help him up, Iverson walked straight over him.

The Sixers went on to win that game, then lost the next four straight. Iverson averaged 35.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.8 steals in 47.8 minutes (!!) per game across the series, but he shot only 40.7 percent overall and 28.2 percent from three-point range.

Although Iverson never guided the Sixers to a championship, his stepover is legendary in Philadelphia to this day.

Paul Pierce's Wheelchair Incident (2008)

The Boston Celtics won the 2008 NBA championship, but not without a scare from star forward Paul Pierce in Game 1 of the Finals.

Late in the third quarter of that game, Pierce crumpled to the ground after contesting a fadeaway jumper from Lakers legend Kobe Bryant and began grabbing at his right knee. His teammates had to carry him off the court, and he needed a wheelchair to get back to the locker room.

Miraculously, Pierce returned to the game midway through the fourth quarter and knocked down a 14-foot jumper and a pair of free throws to help extend the Celtics' lead. Boston wound up winning that game, 98-88, and went on to vanquish its longtime foes in six games to win the 17th championship in franchise history.

Last year, Pierce told Celtics wing Jaylen Brown that he sprained his MCL on the play. However, on a broadcast ahead of the 2019 Finals, he had a...well, a slightly different explanation.

Pierce tried to walk that confession back a few years later, but the damage was done. #PoopGate is here to stay, no matter how many times Pierce tries to deny it.

The Ropes Come Out Prematurely (2013)

The San Antonio Spurs were 19 seconds away from winning the 2013 NBA championship. The league's game staff had brought yellow ropes down to the sideline to cordon off the court in case of a trophy presentation.

Miami Heat guard Ray Allen had other ideas.

After Kawhi Leonard split a pair of free throws, the Spurs were up 95-92. LeBron James missed a three-pointer, but Chris Bosh hauled in the rebound and kicked it to Allen, who stepped back behind the three-point line and launched the game-tying triple.

At that point, Allen turned to the sidelined and implored the game staff, to "get them motherf--king ropes out of here." The Heat proceeded to win in overtime and beat the dejected Spurs in Game 7 for their second straight championship. (The Spurs got them back in 2014, though.)

Given the stakes, there's a real argument for that being the best three-pointer in NBA history. Allen's immediate response was nearly as good.

LeBron Cramps Up in San Antonio (2014)

LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat beat Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard and the San Antonio Spurs in the 2013 Finals. The Spurs returned the favor one year later.

The AT&T Center's air conditioning gave them a big assist in Game 1.

The Spurs said an electrical failure caused the arena's A/C system to give out, and temperatures inside the AT&T Center rose to as high as 90 degrees, according to ESPN's Royce Young. After the game, players and coaches from both teams acknowledged the difficulty of playing through those conditions.

LeBron James finished with a team-high 25 points for the Heat in only 33 minutes, but he played only five minutes in the fourth quarter because of cramping. The Heat were up 86-79 early in the fourth quarter, but the Spurs finished on a 31-9 run to run away with a double-digit win.

"It was the whole left leg, damn near the whole left side," James said after the game, per Young. "I was losing a lot [of fluids] throughout the game. It was extremely hot in the building, you know, both teams, fans, everybody could feel it."

The Heat won a Game 2 thriller to briefly steal home-court advantage away from the Spurs, but the Spurs responded with three straight blowout victories to prevent Miami's three-peat. Who's to say what would have happened if the AT&T Center's A/C never gave out in Game 1, though?

Draymond Green Low-Blows LeBron (2016)

Fifteen years after Allen Iverson stepped over Ty Lue in Game 1 of the 2001 Finals, LeBron James stepped over Draymond Green in Game 4 of the 2016 Finals. Unlike Lue, Green struck back by seemingly swinging at James' groin.

"He stepped over me," Green told ESPN later. "And I had a natural reaction to get from over him. You don't step over a grown man. It's disrespectful. And if it happened again, I'd do the same thing. Get off me!"

The league gave Green a flagrant-1 after a postgame review, which was his fourth of the playoffs. That earned him an automatic one-game suspension, which left the door slightly ajar for James and the Cleveland Cavaliers even though they were facing a 3-1 series deficit that no team had ever come back from in Finals history.

That's exactly what they did. And it all started with Green's low blow.

"If I play, we win, of course," Green told ESPN. "So I do feel it's my fault that we lost. Absolutely my fault. But I don't feel wrong for what I did at all."

In Green's defense, the Warriors went on to sign Kevin Durant in free agency that offseason and promptly won back-to-back titles. Still, their NBA-record 73-win season will always be tarnished with their blown 3-1 lead in the Finals.

J.R. Smith Forgets the Score (2018)

In 2018, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors were meeting in the NBA Finals for the fourth straight year. It was hard to get excited about the matchup from either side. That mental malaise apparently spread to at least one Cavs player in Game 1.

With 4.7 seconds left in regulation, Cavaliers guard George Hill knocked down his first free throw to tie the game at 107. He missed the second, but teammate J.R. Smith pulled down the offensive rebound and hightailed it out of the paint, with Kevin Durant in close pursuit.

Rather than launch an attempted game-winner, Smith dribbled nearly to half court, all the while LeBron James was animatedly pointing at the clock and telling him to shoot. Smith did not receive the memo, and the game went to overtime, where the Cavs wound up losing 124-114.

After the game, head coach Ty Lue told reporters that Smith "thought it was over" because he thought the Cavs had a one-point lead. Smith disputed that.

"I just thought we were going to call a timeout. Because I got the rebound, I'm pretty sure I couldn't shoot it over KD," Smith told reporters. "If I thought we were ahead, I would have just held on to the ball so they could foul me. Clearly that wasn't the case."

Either way, Smith's gaffe led the Cavs to waste James' 51-point, eight-rebound and eight-assist masterpiece. The Warriors proceeded to sweep the Cavs in the next three games to win their second straight championship with Durant.

Klay Thompson Shoots FTs After Tearing His ACL (2019)

The Golden State Warriors were already reeling heading into Game 6 of the 2019 Finals. They were attempting to become only the second team in Finals history to overcome a 3-1 series deficit, but Kevin Durant tore his Achilles in Game 5, leaving them without their two-time Finals MVP for the rest of the series against Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors.

Further disaster struck in Game 6 when Klay Thompson tore his ACL late in the third quarter.

With the Warriors nursing a three-point lead, Stephen Curry fed Thompson in transition. He went up for a layup, but Danny Green contested his shot at the rim, causing him to plant awkwardly on his right knee when he came down.

Thompson remained down in obvious pain and eventually needed to be helped off the court. Less than two minutes later, he returned to shoot his pair of free throws before checking out for good.

"He might be the toughest guy I've ever seen in my life," Warriors center Kevon Looney told reporters after the game. "I know he was in a lot of pain when he went down. I've never seen him scream or show emotion like that, so I knew he was hurt. He's a tough guy and came back and made the free throws."

Following Thompson's free throws, the Raptors went on a 29-20 game-ending run to finish off the Warriors and win their first championship in franchise history.

Had Thompson not shot those free throws, he wouldn't have been eligible to return to the game. (Spoiler alert: He wasn't coming back with a torn ACL anyway.) But much like Kobe Bryant, who drilled two free throws after tearing his Achilles in a regular-season game in 2013, Thompson didn't let a major leg injury stop him from taking a few more freebies.