Part II: The Final Shot

After rallying back from an 18-point deficit, the Liberty once again saw their championship dreams about to be vanquished by the Comets, just as they were for the first WNBA title in 1997.

While most of her teammates were shell-shocked and dejected, Weatherspoon put it on herself to make one last attempt to keep her team’s season alive.

“I was going to live or die with that shot,” Weatherspoon told the New York Times after the game. “I didn’t want any of my teammates to have to live with missing that shot during the offseason. If it didn’t go in, I wanted to be the one to have to live with that.”

With the pass from Hampton still coming toward her, Weatherspoon began her turn toward the right sideline (her dominant hand side), so she had momentum going up-court and a clear path ahead of her as Thompson charged from the middle of the floor.

Weatherspoon: Tina, she doesn’t want to give me the opportunity. But she was on my left-hand side, so she gave me the chance to see the rim, and without contesting my right-hand side — so it gave me a chance to heave it and feel comfortable about it.

Thompson: My first thought was that I didn’t want her to get a clean shot, but I also didn’t want to foul her. Stuff like that happens, as well, so I didn’t want to get too close; I just wanted to get in the way of her vision.

Weatherspoon: I let it go and it looked like it took forever — like it took forever to get there.

Hampton: I watched it the whole way, I’m just walking behind it, following it a little bit and not even thinking that it would ever go in. “Damn, here we go again — another loss.” And when that banked in, I was like, “Oh my God, no she didn’t!” It really ain’t over until the fat lady sings, until that buzzer goes off.

Crystal Robinson (Liberty guard/forward): Watching the flight of the ball and the arc of the ball, I saw that the ball had a chance to go in. When it hit the square on the glass, I thought it was going in. (via the New York Times)

Weatherspoon: I don’t want to lie: I didn’t call a bank shot. I just tried to get it to the rim. Get it to the rim and see if it would fall in. It hit backboard and in. It was just blessings. Just blessings.

Val Ackerman (WNBA President, 1996-2005): I was standing behind Spoon, sort of looking at her back, looking down the floor and I could see the shot in mid-air going on its pathway to the basket at the other end of the court. I remember watching the shot and thinking to myself, “That shot has a chance.” But I was being pushed onto the court by the people around me because everybody around me was focused on me and getting me onto the floor, and I’m watching the shot. And then the thing goes and we’re on the floor.

Weatherspoon: I never even thought that something like this would happen because I never even really practiced those things. Becky Hammon, she could do it all day long and knock it down, throwing up half-court shots after practice just to have fun with it. I wouldn’t do it — I would watch them. And look what happened.

Sheryl Swoopes (Comets forward): I didn’t think it had any chance of going in. Then, it did. (via The Oklahoman)

Cynthia Cooper (Comets guard): When the shot went up, I was standing under the basket and I said “You know what that looks like it’s going in.”

Thompson: Like any other shooter will say, you can kind of look at the ball and see the line of it and know that it possibly has a chance to go in. So literally I’m watching the ball like, “Oh my gosh, this has a chance to go in.” And then it does and I just have like sheer shock on my face, like, “Really, we’re going to have to come back tomorrow?!”

Tina Charles (current Liberty forward): What was very memorable for me was Tina Thompson’s facial expression. She was at half court and just shocked. The angle from the camera view that I always saw that play, they had the streamers coming down as if the series was over. But for anyone who knows Teresa Weatherspoon, you can never count out her heart and just how hard she plays. She plays until the horn is over, so it wasn’t shocking to me that if anyone was going to make that shot or attempt or believe it was going to go in, it would be her.

Cooper: Bam, it went in and I was like, “Oh my gosh.” Then I thought “Wait a minute, maybe the time ran out.” So I was walking towards the locker room and I saw the officials and I asked one of them, I said, “Does that count?” And they’re like “Yeah, incredible wasn’t it?” Yeah, it was.

Weatherspoon: It fell for us and we were just happy. We were tremendously excited because it gave us another chance to play, and it was always fun to play in this arena. And it was so loud at the moment that ball went in, then it went from an arena to a library. It’s beautiful to go home because I’m a Texas girl. And I’ve always had a really great round of applause in this arena because I’m a Texas girl. And this was the first time, when the ball goes in and I walk through the tunnel, that I didn’t get applause.

Swoopes: That place got so quiet when that shot went in, you could have heard a pin drop.

Weatherspoon’s famous shot is accompanied by a famous call by Mike Breen on NBC: “Liberty out of timeouts, they’ve got to go the length of the floor. Teresa Weatherspoon at the buzzer a three … Ohhhhhh! She put it in! She put it in! And the Liberty win Game 2! What a finish! Unbelievable here at the Compaq Center!”

The only thing missing from Breen’s call is his signature “BANG!” call that he makes for big shots (see Stephen Curry’s 35-footer to beat OKC from last season.)

Breen: I hadn’t started using it then, so that’s why. It would have been a perfect opportunity right there, that’s for sure.

Part III: Meanwhile, Off the Court…

While the action on the court was captivating and intense, the league had other logistics to sort out at the same time.

In a scene reminiscent of the famous Ray Allen shot that kept the Miami Heat alive in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals, security ropes were stretched around the ring to prevent fans from storming the court, the championship trophy was ready to be brought out and the commissioner was standing close by in order to get on the court quickly to conduct the championship ceremony.

And just like in the 2013 NBA Finals, all of those preparations were scrapped thanks to a legendary shot.

Ackerman: With a couple of minutes left in the game, I was pulled from my seat and brought down onto the floor. So I was standing behind the basket that Houston was shooting at for that half. I was maybe 10 feet behind the baseline. I was with Paula Hanson and Randy Hirsch from the WNBA staff. They were there to help me with the championship presentation, so the three of us were standing together with my security person and others from our staff.

With two seconds left on the clock, Houston’s up by two and looking more and more like they’re going to win it. So people were starting to kind of move me toward the floor so that we could get on the floor for the championship because television wanted to move it along.

Renee Brown (then WNBA Vice President and Senior Director, now WNBA Chief of Basketball Operations and Player Relations): Literally we were standing in the vestibule at the end of the basket where Tina made [her shot]. We’re standing there ready to bring out the trophy and ready to bring Val out. Tina makes it and the confetti actually starts coming down. It truly happened.

Adubato: The thing that I always bring up that I had never, ever seen before — and I’ve been coaching a lot of years — I’ve never seen the confetti coming down in the air.

The fact that the confetti was coming down is one of the most unbelievable things that could happen.

Breen: I remember saying, “Somebody is going to get in trouble for that.” If they had waited a few more seconds, they wouldn’t have released the championship confetti. And here you have the crowd just stunned, the home team feeling terrible losing Game 2 and blowing the big lead and confetti is coming down from the rafters. I always thought that was very funny.

Hampton: We saw one of the ladies that worked in the arena explaining to someone what happened — that the confetti was almost released. She immediately got on the phone like a crazy woman yelling, “Stop the confetti, stop the confetti!”

Ackerman: All of us were just like, “Wow, okay, now we go to Game 3.” So everybody kind of backed up and the people carrying the platform and the trophy table had to go back to their corners.