FanPost

Not So Great Moments In Wizards History: Michael Ruffin's Uncanny "Assist"

Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

It's easy cheering for a perennial winner. It's hard as %$ cheering for a team that hasn't won 46 games in a single season since an ex-peanut farmer was leader of the free world. Being a Wizards/Bullets fan is like taking 1 step forward and 23 steps back... with a broken ankle and a torn ACL.

For every highlight, there are a million lowlights.

This is just one such story.

----

Michael Ruffin was the consummate NBA journeyman. A 2nd round pick out of Tulsa, the rugged rebounder managed to squeeze a 12 year playing career out of limited talent as an undersized center. The one-time chemical engineering major was undoubtedly a smart guy. But his NBA career is undoubtedly best encapsulated by one, really, really dumb play. Which of course, just had to happen while he played for the Wizards. Because why wouldn't it?

Late in the 2006-2007 season the Wizards were making a strong push at the Southeast Division title and in a virtual tie with the Miami Heat. They were facing a superior Raptors team at home and had controlled the 4th quarter after trailing most of the game. Gilbert Arenas (34 points) and DeShawn Stevenson (19pts, 10rbs) were both cookin'. Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison (a combined 10-31) were having their lunch served to them by the Raptors frontline of Chris Bosh (34/17) and Jay-Z lookalike Joey Graham. Juan Dixon was having an excellent "eff you for not resigning me" game with 17 points off the bench.

But Coach Eddie Jordan, never one to make wise substitutions, had ridden the hunched shoulders of Ruffin for a forgettable 25 minutes. In said time, Ruffin hoisted one missed shot and grabbed a grand total of 5 rebounds while Bosh scored on him as if in a Nevada brothel. It was hard to question Jordan since starting center Brendan Haywood (12 minutes) was in a funk and in the doghouse.

After a back-and-forth final frame of regulation, Gilbert Arenas seemed to wrap the game up for the Wizards, giving them a solid 3 point lead with just 3.8 seconds on a pair of free throws. But of course, this is the Wizards, where no lead is ever, ever safe, and a #SoWizards episode can occur in the most unlikely of scenarios.

Enter, Morris "Mo Pete" Peterson. The swingman out of Michigan State was a Raptors stawalt for much of the 00's and is still the franchise's all-time leader in games played. Having fallen out of the rotation, Peterson hadn't played the entire night but checked in for the final play.

What happened next is probably among The 10 Greatest Moments In Raptors History. And oh yeah, definitely one of the Not So Great Moments In Wizards History.

I'll let the Washington Post's Ivan Carter (where's that guy now?) give you the play by play.

After leading for most of the fourth quarter, the Wizards appeared to have the game wrapped up. After Arenas (34 points on 9-of-29 shooting) made two free throws to give the Wizards a three-point lead with 3.8 seconds remaining, the Raptors were forced to inbound the ball from underneath their own basket because they were out of timeouts.

Anthony Parker's long pass lofted harmlessly in the air, was deflected and grabbed near the three-point line at the Washington end by forward Michael Ruffin.

Ruffin landed with the ball but then attempted to throw it high into the air toward the other end of the court. Instead, the ball slipped out of Ruffin's right hand and landed directly in the hands of Toronto guard Morris Peterson, who had not played the entire game.

With Caron Butler running at him, Peterson half-shot, half-heaved the ball toward the rim, releasing it just before the buzzer sounded. To the amazement of Ruffin, the Wizards, the sellout crowd and Peterson himself, the shot went in from 31 feet.

"My natural reaction was to just throw the ball in the air and let time run out but I didn't get a good throw on it and there was a little more time than I thought," Ruffin said. "When I threw it, it kind of slipped off my palm. I didn't get a good grip on it."

This play has to be seen to be believed. Roll that grainy 240p YouTube footage!



"IT'S NOT POSSIBLE!!! IT'S NOT POSSIBLE!!!"

Oh, it is possible, Buck. It is so possible. #BecauseWizards.

To the surprise of nobody, the Wizards ended up losing the game in overtime. One week later, Arenas showed up late for a game versus the Bobcats, came in off the bench and well.... that's a subject for the next edition of Not So Great Moments In Wizards History.

And just like that, a promising season went from sugar to sugar honey iced tea. A team that shoulda been hoisting a division banner ended up getting swept by the Cavs in the first round, and honestly this franchise hasn't been the same ever since.

Thanks for the memory, Michael Ruffin.

This represents the view of the user who wrote the FanPost, and not the entire Bullets Forever community. We're a place of many opinions, not just one.