Nazr Mohammed’s Buzzer Beater Is Still Unbelievable Sixteen Years Later
By Vinny Hardy
Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Nazr Mohammed left the University of Kentucky in 1998 where he succeeded and then proceeded to move on to the NBA. A lot of young UK fans coming up now would probably find him more recognizable in the picture shown above than they would of him in UK gear. That’s how long he’s been gone and goes to show how extensive his pro career has been.
It’s safe to say that young Kentucky fans coming up today would also identify Nazr this way too.
LeBron is the best player in the game, but I still don’t think he has to go down like he was shot there. At least stumble and stagger before completely losing your balance. As big and strong as he is I think that would have been doable but that’s neither here nor there.
The point is to give Nazr a little love and highlight one of his highlights while at Kentucky that some of the young folks may be sleeping on.
So here you go.
Mark Story of the Lexington Herald-Leader recently wrote a story which ranked Kentucky’s greatest clutch shots. It’s easy to say the things we’ve seen most recently are the greatest ever, that’s how the mind works. However, the display Aaron Harrison put on in the NCAA tournament was something that will long be remembered in the Commonwealth.
It was legit.
I’ve just always had a soft spot for Nazr’s shot against Vandy. It happened in Memorial Gymnasium. That is a difficult place to play no matter how good Kentucky is. A 6’10” guy hitting a lay-up isn’t usually going to be all that high in the dramatics department.
Nazr’s shot was an exception. Vandy had just tied the game and the crowd is going crazy. Mohammed gets the ball beyond the three-point arc. He puts it on the floor and blows by the defender with two dribbles. He releases the shot from his mid torso region and kisses it off the highest possible corner of the glass!
Are you kidding?!?
He was just as shocked as we were and it is still one of the greatest UK wins in Nashville. Though I can’t make a case for this shot to bump any of those others out of the top ten, I can argue that it was good to take a few minutes to revisit the big fella’s clutch bucket.