Garfield (Gar) Heard, (born May 3 1948 in Hogansville, Georgia) is a former American professional basketball player and coach. He played collegiately at the University of Oklahoma, and was selected by the Seattle SuperSonics in the 3rd round of the 1970 NBA Draft. He had an eleven-year NBA career for four different teams (the Sonics, the Buffalo Braves/San Diego Clippers, the Chicago Bulls, and the Phoenix Suns). Throughout his career he was an excellent rebounder and shot-blocker. Heard is probably best known for an incredible buzzer beater he made to send Game 5 of the Phoenix-Boston championship series in 1976 into a third overtime, a feat which is commonly known as "The Shot".

The Shot

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With 2 seconds remaining in double overtime, John Havlicek had given Boston a one-point advantage with a running one-handed shot. The Celtics' timekeeper then mistakenly ran the clock out instead of stopping it after a made basket per league rules. The Boston Garden crowd erupted, believing the game was over, and the Celtics themselves actually went back to their locker room. But the Suns correctly pointed that there was still time left, though the officials only placed 1 second back on the clock instead of 2. (Celtics fans had stormed the court after the time was erroneously allowed to expire, and one particularly boisterous fan attacked referee Richie Powers after it was announced that the game was actually not over yet.) Paul Westphal then intentionally took a technical foul by calling a timeout when the Suns had no more timeouts to use. It gave the Celtics a free throw, which Jo Jo White converted to give Boston a two-point edge, but the timeout allowed Phoenix to inbound from mid-court instead of from under their own basket. The NBA would change its rules after the series was over, doing away with this advance in court position.

When play resumed, Heard, by no means Phoenix's franchise player, caught the inbound pass and fired a very high-arcing turnaround jump shot from at least 20 feet away. It swished through, sending the game into a third overtime. However, Boston eventually won the game, then the Finals, 4 wins to 2.

Coaching

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In addition to his playing career, Heard served as head coach of the Dallas Mavericks from 1993 to 1994 and the Washington Wizards from 1999 to 2000. During the 2004-2005 season, Heard was an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons; he coached several games that season when Larry Brown was out due to a medical condition.

Trivia

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• Heard's college coach at Oklahoma, John MacLeod, would later be his Suns coach.

• Heard's Phoenix team advanced to the 1976 NBA Finals by defeating the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the conference finals. The starting center on that Golden State team was Clifford Ray, a former teammate of Heard's at Oklahoma.

External links

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• BasketballReference.com: Gar Heard (as player)
• BasketballReference.com: Gar Heard (as coach)

American basketball players | National Basketball Association lore | Seattle SuperSonics players | Chicago Bulls players | Buffalo Braves players | Phoenix Suns players | San Diego Clippers players | Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball players | African American basketball players | American basketball coaches | Dallas Mavericks coaches | Washington Wizards coaches | 1948 births | Living people