The Game Managers: April 5, 2016: Special OH MY GOD CAN YOU BELIEVE IT edition

This is what the earliest stages of a Game Managers email looks like:

Intro Column

Three Things to Read Today

Headlines

Best of the Rest

Stat of the Day?

TEEBBBBOOOOWWWW

NBA Scoreboard

NHL Scoreboard

MLB Scoreboard

It’s a handy little template that sort of keeps us organized and makes for more efficient work. Well, today we must eschew that template, FOR LAST NIGHT WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST SPORTING EVENTS YOU, ME OR WE WILL EVER SEE.

LET’S GET TO IT

I don’t know what just happened

At 11:28 p.m., my wife stood up and stormed out of living room.

She had fallen asleep, and while she should have been angry with herself, she was angry with me for letting out a pair of childish shrieks in a 3-minute span, both of which woke her up.

I apologized to no one, for what I had just seen was maybe the best college basketball game ever, certainly the best I have ever witnessed.

Now, I know. We’re in the moment and it’s never a good thing to call something the greatest ever in the moment because you’re emotional and you could regret it later on. So with the caveat of “I haven’t actually looked into it” I now would like to unequivocally say, we just saw the best college basketball game ever.

The stakes were as high as it gets. The game was very well played throughout. Both teams made plays, as opposed to so many other all-time great games where there is a goat somewhere along the line. And of course, we had TWO epic game-defining shots in the final 5 seconds.

What Marcus Paige did was ridiculous, even in a world where Steph Curry exists. To hit an off-balance 3 in that scenario takes a level of poise most of us will never have. Yes, I said poise, because it wasn’t luck. It sure as hell looked like luck at first, but on the replay, it was pretty clear that he gathered himself following the stumble and shot that ball, no matter how awkward the lower half of his body looked.

At that point, I proclaimed that Paige had killed Crying Jordan. It turns out he only made it stronger, because Kris Jenkins is cold blooded.

The acrobatics of the game-winner weren’t nearly as incredible as the Paige shot, but the play call was outstanding, and the calmness of Jenkins to simply set up and shoot, not worrying about the clock about to hit zero or the moment he was in, was remarkable. It was everything we want a game-winning play to be.

So I yelled, twice. I woke my wife up, twice. I maybe peed in my pants a little bit. I definitely had tears in my eyes. It was everything we could have hoped for and more.

HERE’S WHAT PRE-EMPTED THE GAME-WINNER

Screen Shot 2016-04-05 at 12.16.37 AM.png

Degree of difficulty: 11

Stakes:12

Value of shot: 3

Value 20 seconds later: 0

HERE’S THE GAME WINNER

Screen Shot 2016-04-05 at 12.18.54 AM.png

So many Michael Jordans. So many tears.

For those who do not know, Michael Jordan has been transformed from greatest basketball player of all time to most popular meme of all time thanks to that time he cried during his Hall of Fame induction speech. It’s easier just to show you.