Gar Heard

Garfield (Gar) Heard, (born May 3 1948 in Hogansville, Georgia) is an American former 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). Heard is probably best known for a 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", or "The Shot Heard 'round the World" in reference to Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1837 poem "Concord Hymn" which references the Battle of Lexington, the first battle of the American Revolutionary War.

The Shot

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 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. Urban legends have stated that Havilcek had actually taken the tape off his ankles by this stage. 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. When play resumed, Heard 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.

A revision to Rule 12-A, Section I, in regards to excessive timeouts, resulted eliminating the permission to advance the ball following such an excessive timeout. The rule has since been changed to award the ball to the team shooting the free throw.

Coaching

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.

External links

* [http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/heardga01.html BasketballReference.com: Gar Heard (as player)]
* [http://www.basketball-reference.com/coaches/heardga01c.html BasketballReference.com: Gar Heard (as coach)]