Trae Young Burying The Jazz By Making A Halfcourt Game Winner Has To Be Such An Incredible Feeling

Melissa Majchrzak. Getty Images.

No matter the level of basketball being played, few things beat a game winner. It could be your rec league, high school, any level of college, G-League, International basketball, or the NBA. Game winners rule. Sometimes I go back and forth in terms of what's better, a game winner at home or on the road, and I think it kind of depends. In a big moment, you sort of want that one at home so you can factor in the pop of the crowd. At the same time, there may not be anything cooler than shutting up an entire arena with a dagger on the road to steal a game. Make 18,000 people leave the arena unable to comprehend what just happened. That's very elite.

It's one of those situations where there's really no wrong answer. A perfect example of this question can be found at the ending of Tuesday's Hawks/Jazz game. You guessed it, we had another incredible night of basketball in the Association with more incredible endings. 

Talk about a wave of emotions for Jazz fans. As expected, making a big time shot at home in that situation was awesome. Great crowd reaction, a bit of a prayer but that's usually how these things go. Then, before you can even finish feeling happy about tying up the game and possibly forcing overtime, here comes Trae Young that craft sonofabitch. The thing about Trae Young is he's an all-time villain. He LOVES to go into another team's arena and shut everyone up with a dagger game winning 3. He torments the Knicks at MSG doing shit like this, he won a playoff game against the Celtics doing it in their Garden, and here he is again tonight. First off, good on him for letting that shit fly FG% be damned. That's why you ALWAYS get the shot off, you never know what can happen. Sometimes Payton Pritchard hits from halfcourt in the NBA Finals, and sometimes Trae Young buries the Jazz in their own building in early January. You just never know.

Given he's done shit like this dozens of times before, I'm sure Trae Young is immune to it, but can you imagine how incredible that moment must have felt? Hitting a game winner will always be awesome, but a halfcourt buzzer beater immediately after the Jazz made their own prayer seconds before? That's taking ripping their hearts out to a whole new level and frankly in my opinion, adds so much more to the moment. From the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat all in an instant. That's tough.

But hey, that's why you have to play a full 48 minutes. Can't fall asleep on defense in that spot just because you're amped up things were now tied. That lack in mental focus, even if it's only for a second, can be costly. Granted it's not like the Jazz give a shit their tanking for Cooper Flagg, but that's still a brutal way to lose a game.