The clock is winding down 3…2…1, the shot goes up, the buzzer goes off and it hits nothing but net for the win! The crowd goes wild! Your teammates mob you to congratulate you on making the game winning shot. Can you imagine the chaos of having the game on the line and YOU hit the game winning shot? Not too many people know this feeling especially in a championship basketball game. The one person that comes to everyone’s mind when thinking of game winning shots is the great Michael Jordan. He has experienced many game winning shots in championship games. The newest name to add to that list is Villanova’s Kris Jenkins, who hit a game winning 3 point shot on Monday night as time expired to help Villanova win their first national title in thirty-five years.
Michael Jordan
It is very easy to compare all the great game winners in the history of basketball to one player with that player being Michael Jordan. Jordan has hit many game winning shots, but probably one of the greatest shots in NCAA history was his game winner against Georgetown in the NCAA national championship game as a freshman. Jordan would go on to say “that single shot changed his career and how people viewed him” he continued, “People before called me Mike after that shot I was known as Michael.”1
Kris Jenkins
Every kid dreams of hitting a three pointer or a jumper to win the national championship game. Well Kris Jenkins got to feel that emotion on one of the biggest stages in all of college athletics. But did you know this? Kris Jenkins hit that shot against his brothers’ team.2 Jenkins has put himself into the record books along with the greats like Michael Jordan, who has known the feeling of beating teams with last second shots for his entire career. If Kris Jenkins never plays basketball again it would not matter because by hitting that one game winning shot, he will never be forgotten in college basketball history.
Resources
1 http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/04/michael-jordan-1982-sager
2 http://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2016/4/3/11355344/villanova-north-carolina-adoptive-brothers-kris-jenkins-nate-britt-national-championship-game
Pictures
http://simplebooklet.com/publish.php?wpKey=tFDVd1ex1cGTNZvLonO9lQ#page=0
http://www.wyff4.com/national/villanova-unc-on-the-epic-final-seconds/38870218
I can relate to this article. Being a football kicker, you are presented with opportunities to be hated or loved. It's is just the nature of some positions in sports. You can make or break your career as well!
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