Aficionados of the video game Mortal Kombat have seen it thousands of times: You’ve just depleted your opponent’s final scrap of energy, and now his pixilated character is swaying around like a wayward drunk who just stood up from the bar stool too quickly.
At that moment, your directive pops up on the screen in bold, red letters: FINISH HIM!
Suddenly, your heart starts to race a bit faster. There is now a sense of urgency. You concentrate on your controller, making sure to punch in the right combination of buttons as quickly and accurately as you possibly can.
If you complete the sequence in the allotted amount of time, your character will do something spectacular (which is to say, grotesquely violent), such as grabbing your adversary by the top of his spinal chord and proceeding to rip out all of his vertebrae, along with his entire skull, which he then triumphantly holds aloft like he’s just won an Academy Award.
If you fail, your opponent simply falls to the ground, and though you’ve still technically won the match, you are wide open to ridicule — and in the sick but somehow understandable logic of this game, you’ve failed.
Though spinal chord removals are commonly discouraged in the NBA, there are some parallels between finishing off an opponent in Mortal Kombat and finishing a play in pro hoops.
In both cases, there is a palpable feeling of pressure to complete the play, a great triumph if you succeed, and a sudden sense of humiliation if you fail.
With all of that in mind, and with the same ferocity of a heated confrontation in Mortal Kombat, here’s a look at some of the most dynamic finishers in the league:
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Let’s get this straight right away: You don’t have to be a hulking center or rim-kissing swingman to be a great finisher. For his size, the 6-3 Warriors combo guard is one of the best in the league. And despite being one of the smaller players on the court, Ellis’ power game is nothing to scoff at — during his breakout 2006-07 season, he semi-famously annihilated Suns guard Leandro Barbosa on a monstrous fast break dunk.";
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He spends plenty of time hoisting away from behind the 3-point line, but when Manu does decide to lope his way into the paint, few can summon a sudden, rim-snapping fury quite like the Argentine lefty. Using improbable angles and an almost Gumby-like flexibility, Ginobili has a way of combining finesse (in getting through the defensive obstacles) and power (in jumping over them) that can be remarkable to behold.";
spt_NBA_best_finishers[i++] = new Array("","Gerald Wallace, Bobcats","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/apmegasports/200801261924698631219-pf.vlarge.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "Chuck Burton", "AP", "358", "210", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
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Wallace makes this list primarily because when it comes to finishing, he is more or less a demented lunatic. Basically, you don’t earn a nickname like “Crash” by frequently pulling up from 15 feet for floating jumpers. You get such a moniker by barreling to the rim with little regard for whoever might step up or whatever cameraman might be trying to get a nice close-up shot on the baseline. When Wallace gets the ball in the open court, the amount of momentum he generates is often frightening — you’re scared for the defender, the rim and more often than not, you have a genuine concern for Wallace himself.";
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He’s been dogged by questions about his intensity throughout his career, but there seems to be one thing that Chris Wilcox cares about deeply: punctuating a play with a ruthless right-handed slam that sends whatever Sonics fans are left into a frenzy. It’s noteworthy that a man who shows so little emotion on the court — according to official statistics Wilcox smiled six times during the Sonics first 41 games — can elicit such a sudden emotional response from the crowd. But such is the power of the well-executed finishing move.";
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When he’s not sidelined with lingering pain in his surgically repaired knees, or missing time with a staph infection in his buttocks (yes, that actually happened, and yes, it is probably as uncomfortable as it sounds), K-Mart continues to be one of the most aggressive and angriest dunkers around. Quite simply, watching him try to dunk hard enough to throw the ball through the floor is one of the more underrated sights you might see on any given night in the league.";
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In any discussion of dynamic finishers, it would be a massive oversight not to mention the man who has collected more dunks than there are unruly hairs in Hedo Turkoglu’s goatee (which is to say, a seemingly uncountable number). Howard is wisely doing everything he can to hone his hook shot and turnaround jumper, because most teams have realized that there’s only one defensive strategy that can truly stop him up close: tackling him.";
spt_NBA_best_finishers[i++] = new Array("","Amare Stoudemire, Suns","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/getty/gyi0051375155.vlarge.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "right", "Domenic Centofanti", "Getty Images", "358", "266", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
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With his ability to catch a ball from the free throw line extended, take one or two giant strides and throw down a monstrous one-handed stretch dunk, Stoudemire frequently blurs the line between real life and basketball video game, where you can press the dunk button from anywhere near the key and the player will comply. But what makes Stoudemire one of the most polished and dangerous finishers in the league is that he’s already learned when to use finesse and when to drop the hammer, a frightening prospect considering that he’s still just 25 years old.
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These days, the man who runs things in Cleveland is commonly referred to as the “L-Train,” which, it should be noted, was first the nickname of former Kings forward Lionel Simmons and also became the handle for a likeable numbskull on the oddly entertaining late-1990’s teen sitcom City Guys.
If we’re going to be thorough, it should also be noted that the L train in New York actually spends much of its time sitting in the station waiting for people to board so that it can go to Brooklyn.
Despite the somewhat played out nature of LeBron’s nickname and the less than dynamic nature of the real-life L train, it’s hard to argue with any comparisons between LeBron James and a train. As analogies go, it is simple but strikingly true: When he gets enough momentum, there is rarely anything good that’s going to happen for a defender getting in LeBron’s way, just as it is true that more often than not, you will be smashed if you try to halt a locomotive by wandering onto the track.
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The 6-6 Blazers guard isn’t obscenely explosive, but he makes up for that with an impressive array of crafty on the fly maneuvers. Among Roy’s favorites: the up-and-under (which he executes as convincingly as any player in the league), and the more spectacular show the ball to the shot blocker on one side, then switch hands in mid-flight, a move that’s vaguely reminiscent of Michael Jordan’s legendary 1991 playoff drive against the Lakers.
As finishers go, Roy tends to be more quietly dazzling than noisy, and as such, he may seem oddly out of place surrounded by a number of players more inclined towards ferocity.
But if Mortal Kombat has taught us anything, it’s that you can only watch so many vicious outbursts (be they dunks or outright removals of the spine) before you feel inclined to take a brief respite and digest some slightly lighter fare.
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