Certain moments in NBA history live long in the memory of fans and basketball lovers. The truly transcendent moments are evergreen in the NBA community’s minds, even if they weren’t there to witness them personally.
Think Michael Jordan’s “The Shot” against the Utah Jazz in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, think Kyrie Irving’s three-pointer in the 2016 Finals, think Ray Allen’s game-tying triple in the 2013 Finals. These moments are tattooed in our minds and in the memories of all fans who know and love the game – even if they didn’t get the opportunity to witness them in real time.
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While the regular season has its fair share of magical moments, usually these awe-inspiring collections of mementos are reserved for the playoffs, when the stakes are the highest and everything is on the line. This was especially true for Indiana Pacers legend Reggie Miller, who seemed to rise to an elevated level in the postseason.
As a result, he put together a series of unforgettable moments that still pop up on social media timelines two decades later, none more prominent than his 8 points in 9 seconds against the New York Knicks. Hilariously, Miller knew the Pacers had a chance at an unlikely comeback because Anthony Mason was inbounding the ball.
The sequence that stopped the world
The year was 1995 and the basketball world was treated to arguably the best offensive sequence the league has ever seen. In the final moments against their biggest rivals the New York Knicks inside Madison Square Garden, Miller executed a series of plays that stunned the world.
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In just nine seconds, Reggie Miller hit a three, stole the ball, nailed another three to tie the game and sank two clutch free throws, showcasing his lightning-fast instincts and ice-cold composure to break the hearts of Knicks fans.
Looking back, Miller’s eyes lit up the instant he saw Knicks forward Anthony Mason — whose decision-making was questionable at best — preparing to inbound the ball.
“I saw Anthony Mason kind of leaning and tipping over the line and he threw the best chest pass I’ve ever seen in my life right to me. And I knew immediately. I easily could have gone in for the lay in,” he said. “I said, ‘Let me get back to the 3 and tie her up. And that’s what happened. I go to shoot the foul shots. And that’s where the last two points come for 8 points in 8.9 seconds.”
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For Miller to have the presence of mind not to just take an easy two points, but to step back to the three-point line and make it a two-possession game, speaks to the invisible greatness baked into the game’s all-time great players.
Just about any other player would have taken the safe route and scored the guaranteed basket, but Miller knew the time and score, and his mental processing instinctively took him beyond the three-point line.
Mason’s part to play
You’d think that a simple task, such as inbounding the ball, would be a skill that comes naturally to professional basketball players, but you’d be sorely mistaken. We see it time and time again in the league every night, where coaches will sub in players they trust just to inbound the ball during a critical period in crunch time.
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This level of detail and responsibility speaks to the intangible skills in the league. These are rarely discussed in mainstream media, but the finer details can be the difference between winning and losing at the highest level.
Mason, who former Knicks head coach Jeff Van Gundy publicly stated had a low basketball IQ, definitely wasn’t the right person to have the ball in their hands at the most important moment of the contest.
Most other players across that roster would have inbounded the ball with no issues; the Knicks would have won the game comfortably and the matchup would be largely lost in the grand scheme of league history, but instead, it became perhaps the most famous combination of choking and expert execution we’ve ever seen.
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Rivalries
When reminiscing on Miller’s heroics, it’s also an unfortunate reminder that team rivalries largely don’t exist in the current NBA. Famously, after his game-winning performance, Reggie made a throat-slashing gesture toward the Knicks’ bench and a choking gesture toward diehard Knicks fan Spike Lee, which became a symbolic reference to the intense rivalry between the two franchises.
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It was so symbolic in fact, that current Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton replicated the celebration in the 2025 playoffs after the Pacers pulled off an incredible comeback and he hit the clutch three-pointer to send it to overtime against the very same Knicks.
With player movement, a decline in organizational loyalty, and ever-changing playoff matchups, it’s hard for the current landscape to rekindle the rivalries of eras past. At least we have moments like this to look back on fondly. In fact, it’s even more polarizing now with Miller recognizing the Pacers had a chance because he saw Mason with the ball, knowing he was about to receive the single greatest chest pass of his career.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Apr 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.