Scoring in the Final Seconds of a Blowout, What's Acceptable and What's Not

Last night we witnessed two very similar yet very different scenarios. We saw two different players in two different games commit one of the most heinous acts in all of sports.....scoring in the final seconds of a game that is already won. However, I believe that one of these instances was not only completely acceptable, but should actually be promoted and supported. The other, I believe, falls into the category of "Why would you do that? Are you dense?" Let's take a look and truly dive into these two scenarios, and the unwritten rule itself.

Subject #1: Acceptable

Here we see New Orleans Pelicans' star Zion Williamson throw down a 360 windmill slam to put the exclamation point on their big win over the Phoenix Suns. Going into this game the Suns held the top seed in the Western conference with the Pelicans trailing them by only one game. This game actually meant something to these teams, and Zion, a player who has gone through a significant amount of trials and tribulations, was able to put them away with a highlight reel worthy dunk. Then of course, and we all knew it would happen, the Suns took exception to this play. The thing is....did you see that dunk? I mean at what point do NBA players need to realize that their job is to entertain, and I don't know of something much more entertaining than that. It's stuff like that that makes the NBA's product as great as it is. It's stuff like that that puts millions of dollars in benchwarmer's pockets.

In addition to that, and I'm not just saying this because I hate Chris Paul, but you can't hate on somebody doing a 360 windmill dunk if you can't even dunk. Then you have Cam Payne come in and get in Willie Green's face. My guy you can't do that either, let it be. Every member of the Suns' roster and coaching staff should've lined up to shake the hand of Mr.Williamson, because when a guy throws down a dunk like that, no matter the context, he deserves respect. Screw your unwritten rules, I want to see more guys throw down awesome slam dunks, and if you have a problem with that you can take it up with me.

Subject #2: Unacceptable

Here we see Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert drop in a lame bucket in the closing seconds of a decided game against the Utah Jazz. I think we can all agree that what Gobert did was not an awesome 360 windmill slam dunk. Even if it was a dunk it wouldn't have been cool because the guy is a giant. Now that we have that covered, I think it's important to give background to this clip. Gobert, of course, played for the Jazz for his entire career up to this season, and he is beloved in Utah. I myself am a Utah Jazz fan, and Rudy is one of my favorite players. You would think that alone would keep him from doing something so dumb. Not to mention that he is having a career down year on a team that has been far worse than everyone expected them to be. All of those factors considered and you can not do what Rudy did in the final seconds of this game. The Jazz players had every right to confront him and the Jazz fans had every right to boo him.

At the end of the day, sports are stupid. We all know this. Unwritten rules exist in every sport, they just kind of pop up over the years. Of course baseball is the most infamous unwritten rule sport, but basketball isn't far behind. As much as Zion throwing down a dunk that all of us overweight couch dwellers could only dream of doing gets eyes on the TV, so do bench clearing brawls, and as long as there are unwritten rules we will have plenty of those. So sure, rules like not scoring in the final seconds of a decided game are dumb, but who cares. Humans are simple creatures, keep breaking rules, keep dunking balls in a circle ten feet up in the air, and keep fighting about it and everyone will be happy.