One of the greatest misses in college basketball history
Gordon Hayward announced his retirement on Thursday after a long and successful 14-year pro career.
A lot of sites have posted career highlight reels but for Duke fans there is only one highlight that matters and that’s his amazing near miss at the end of the 2010 national championship game between the Blue Devils and Butler.
To recap a bit, people didn't yet realize that Brad Stevens was a brilliant coach or that Butler was such a sticky opponent. No one really could escape them, even if you won. They were next to impossible to get away from.
That was true for Duke too. We’ve looked at the closing seconds of that game and how brilliantly Brian Zoubek played for Duke, making smart play after smart play down the stretch. Even so, Butler had a chance to win on Hayward’s dramatic last-second half court shot that just barely rimmed out. ESPN estimated that if the angle from when it left his hand had been a shoestring more (or maybe less, it’s hard to remember) it would’ve gone in. It was an astounding miss.
This video shows that shot from multiple angles. It would have been the greatest winning play in college championship history. Our guess is that he thinks about it on a regular basis. How could he not?
Fortunately for Duke it did miss and fortunately for Hayward, his career was just beginning. Best of luck to Hayward and wherever life takes him from here. He was a most worthy opponent.
