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So, naturally, when the Nets needed heroics after Charlotte center Cody Zeller’s putback of a Kemba Walker miss had given the Hornets a 118-117 lead with 3.5 seconds to go, there was only one place for Kenny Atkinson to go:
As longtime friend of BDL Lang Whitaker notes, it actually looked like the Nets wanted to spring star center Brook Lopez, who had scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to help Brooklyn eliminate what had once been a 14-point deficit. But when Zeller tracked Lopez out on the left block, and Foye popped free and clear to the 3-point line, Nets swingman Bojan Bogdanovic fired an inbounds pass to the open veteran guard.
He caught the pass, calmly dribbled once to his left away from the hard-charging closeout of Walker, elevated with Walker all over him, and let it fly with just under one second remaining on the game clock … and with all zeroes on the clock, the ball splashed through the net, beating the buzzer to give Brooklyn a 120-118 win and send both the Barclays Center crowd and Foye’s teammates into hysterics.
Here’s what it looked like from the Barclays stands:
An appropriate level of pandemonium in a relatively rare moment of excitement for a bad team, provided by an unexpected source. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, as related by the Nets’ public relations team, Foye is the first player to have his only made field goal of a game be a game-winning buzzer-beater since the immortal Milt Palacio pulled off that feat for the Boston Celtics on Dec. 28, 2000 — 16 years ago, nearly to the day — against, of course, the then-New Jersey Nets. The universe is an odd place.
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Foye was pressed into action in the second half after starting point guard Jeremy Lin, who had missed nearly six weeks of action with a strained left hamstring before returning to the lineup on Dec. 12, exited the game after apparently reaggravating that injury on a drive early in the third quarter. Foye, an 11-year veteran who had had to scrap for minutes and opportunities on a rebuilding Nets club, found himself tasked with playing the entire fourth quarter in place of his fallen teammate … and, on the biggest possession of the game, delivering the kind of dramatic finish for New York fans that Lin became famous for back in 2012.
“When he went out, it was just like, ‘He went out, so the next man has got to step up,’” Foye said after the game, according to Mark Herrmann of Newsday.
Lopez (21 points, five rebounds, five assists, three blocks), guard Sean Kilpatrick (23 points, five rebounds, four assists) and reserve scorer Bogdanovic (a game-high 26 points on 7-for-11 shooting in 26 1/2 minutes off Brooklyn’s bench) each helped shoulder the offensive load in Lin’s absence. When it mattered most, though, it was Foye who stepped up, going from out of the rotation to into the spotlight with one flick of the wrist.
“It just felt good as soon as it left my hand,” he said.
It looked like the aftermath felt pretty good, too.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!Follow @YourManDevine