Great Sports Moments, Real and Fake

From Bill Simmons's column in the most recent issue of ESPN The Magazine:

Q: If you could have the best seats in the house for any sporting event of the past century, which would you choose?
-Max A., Cleveland
SG: The only answer can be "USA 4, USSR 3." A tougher question: Which sports-movie event would you choose? I'd pick the game in which Michael J. Fox first turns into Teen Wolf. Name me a more stunning sports-movie moment. Fans in the stands are frozen for, like, 45 seconds. You're not topping the experience of being in a sparsely attended high school hoops game in which one of the players turns into a monster, then dunks on everybody. I'm sorry.

I have to say, I think these are two really good questions. Its tough (hell, nearly impossible) to pick any event other than the Miracle on Ice in 1980; I'd be my choice as well. But I think there are some other worthy games that at least merit consideration:

-Duke v. Kentucky, 1992 East Regional Final: I'm pretty sure this would be my #2 choice. It was a phenomenal game (I remember watching it live) on top of Laettner's game-winning shot. One of the greatest college basketball games in history would definitely be worth seeing live.

-Boston College v. Miami, 1984: From one of the greatest college basketball games ever to one of the greatest college football games ever. This might be have jumped the '92 East Regional Final if it weren't for the weather at this game. And like the '92 East Regional Final, this game was so much more than just one play. In the rain, Kosar and Flutie put on a show, and it was clear early on that the last team with the ball would win the game. Knowing the outcome, knowing how it all plays out, I think it'd be worth braving the weather to see this one.

-Men's 4x100 Freestyle Relay, 2008 Olympics: Too soon? I don't think so. This was the #1 moment from the 2008 Olympics and absolutely the one thing I would have wanted to see live. From Michael Phelps's quest for 8 golds to the smack talk from the choking dog French team, this race had it all.

That just about covers actual sporting events for me. So what about the second question, the fictional sports events? Again, its tough to argue against Teen Wolf; I mean, how many times would you be able to see a player literally turn into a monster on the court? It wasn't necessarily a great game, but it would surely be memorable. Others I'd throw in there:

-18th Hole, Tin Cup: There's something about watching a train wreak. Jean Van de Velde ain't got shit on Roy McAvoy. Van de Velde's collapse was just pathetic. McAvoy descended to that same level, but, because its the movies, he was able to rise back to the realm of the heroic. Would have been incredible to watch.

-Championship game, Hoosiers: I know, I know, the 1954 Milan team doesn't make the "real" sports list, but the dramatized Hoosiers version does. What can I say, I think the movie does it better. In the actual game, there's about 4 minutes of stall ball at the end that wouldn't have been fun to watch. But back to the movie- how are there not 3 guys covering Jimmy Chitwood on that last possession? He hadn't missed a shot all game (in fact, I think he only missed one shot in the entire movie- during the scene where Gene Hackman tries to convince him to join the team). You have to deny him the ball and force someone else to take that shot. Clearly, the two guys that stood behind Christian Laettner on the pass from Grant Hill never saw or didn't learn anything from Hoosiers.

-Slap Shot: When do you ever see a fight before the game starts? Never. And seeing the Hanson Brothers play has to be worth the price of admission anyway.

(Honorable mention goes to the final game in The Natural. I thought about being in the stand for this game, and I came to realize that as cool as it would be to see the sparks rain down on the field after Hobbs's game-winning home run, the moment is considerably lessened by the absence of the slow-motion effects and the background music. So without those post-production effects, the moment, while still great, wouldn't be as good live).

So those are my picks. Did I miss any worthwhile games, real or fictional?