DirtyDez wrote:GMATCallahan wrote:SportsCenter twenty-five years ago this evening, Craig Kilborn on the call (note that he confuses Wesley Person for Elliot Perry during the highlight):
People talk about Marion as a playoff choker yet Majerle gagged b2b years vs Houston and he was a ROH shoe in. /rant
I was recently reflecting (again) about Marion not being in the Ring of Honor. For someone who spent seven-and-a-half seasons with the Suns (after being drafted by Phoenix), made four All-Star teams, made two All-NBA Third Teams, and played in two Western Conference Finals, his continued omission proves curious to say the least.
In Game Seven of the 1995 Western Conference Semifinals, Majerle had not played in the fourth quarter (he was 1-6 from the field and 0-3 on threes to that point) before head coach Paul Westphal inserted him with 45.3 seconds remaining and the Suns trailing 110-109. Following a timeout, Westphal inserted Majerle to accompany Kevin Johnson, Charles Barkley, Danny Ainge, and Wesley Person, as Johnson and Barkley ran a pick-and-roll from the right wing and the Suns spread the court with their three three-point shooters. Kenny Smith, guarding Johnson, went under Barkley's pick, but Johnson penetrated the middle anyway and then leapt in the air. When he went up, so did Hakeem Olajuwon, creating just enough of a passing lane for K.J. to slip the ball to Barkley in the middle of the paint. Sir Charles, playing with torn cartilage in his left knee (an injury suffered in the third quarter in Game Six in Houston), brought the ball to the floor for one dribble as Robert Horry and Clyde Drexler both collapsed from the perimeter, leaving both Majerle and Ainge unguarded. Barkley kicked the ball to Majerle for a good look, but Thunder Dan's trey was long. Barkley tipped the high carom to K.J., who drew the in-the-penalty blocking foul on the cross-matched Horry and tied the score at 110 before finally missing his first free throw in twenty-two attempts. But if Majerle had hit that shot, the Suns may not have traded him to Cleveland the following fall.
The situation proved slightly paradoxical. On the one hand, hitting such an attempt is not easy when you have not played in over eleven minutes of game time (much more in real time). On the other hand, Westphal had gone with the rookie, Person, instead of Majerle to that point in the fourth quarter precisely because Thunder Dan had proved so ineffective in that game (and, more generally, that series). Of Majerle's six Game Seven field goal attempts prior to his ultimate one, he had bricked three three-pointers (coming nowhere near on any of them), made a slashing left-handed layup off a ball-swing assist from Johnson, and had two driving attempts swatted out of bounds from behind (by Robert Horry and Pete Chilcutt, respectively).
It is not as if Person had been hot, either; entering the fourth quarter, he was 1-4 from the field for three points, his one made field goal being a third-quarter trey off a kick-out pass from K.J. (Person would then go 0-2 from the field in the fourth.) But Westphal still felt more confident in him than the veteran Majerle.
He was one of the good guys. 
