Most clutch player in Sacramento Kings history: Mike Bibby
While in recent years the Sacramento Kings have become something of a laughingstock, without any true clutch moments to speak of, they were not always this dysfunctional. In the early 2000s the Kings had a stocked team and were talented enough to compete with anyone in the league.
At point guard, the Kings started Mike Bibby, who was more of a scorer and shooter than a facilitator. On a team with Chris Webber and a young Hedo Turkoglu that worked out just fine, Bibby played a key role in their playoff runs — including a huge clutch play in the biggest series in franchise history.
Key Moment: The 2002 Western Conference Finals were one of the best series of the past twenty years, with the Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers going back and forth all series long. In Game 5 the result was going down to the wire, much as it had in the Lakers’ series-tying one-point win in Game 4.
Down one with 11 seconds to go, Bibby inbounds the ball to Webber and then sprints past him, receiving the ball back. He curls to the top of the elbow and launches a jumper that whips through the net.
Heartbreak awaited the Kings in Games 6 and 7, and the Lakers would return to the NBA Finals and complete their three-peat. But the Kings showed throughout the series that they were one of the league’s best teams to never make the Finals, and Mike Bibby’s game-winner was the highlight of a highlight series.