The Block: My Favorite NBA Playoff Memory of All-Time

It was a tight game. It was a heated rivalry. Everything was on the line. This would be the defining moment in a series that ultimately might have determined the NBA Champion.

It was Pistons-Pacers. Reggie Miller is one of the greatest playoff scorers of all-time. He gets the ball on the fast break and no one is within a good 20 feet of him, or so he thought. He nonchalantly coasts in toward the basket for what should be an easy, key lay-up, but all of a sudden, Detroit Piston Tayshaun Prince enters the screen.

He's going all-out in a last-ditch attempt to challenge Miller's shot. "There's no way he's going to get there in time," I think to myself. Then he does.

Like pterodactyl snatching its prey out of mid-air, the long-armed Prince swoops in and swats Miller's lay-up at the last possible instant.

"A lay-up is a 90% shot, and Tayshaun Prince blocked it," wrote my favorite writer at the time, the now-deceased Ralph Wiley, on ESPN Page 2. He called that play and the Pistons' penchant for blocking shots part of the "evolution of the game."

While most of the country saw an ugly, defensive-oriented series between the Pistons and Pacers, that moment put an excellent cap on what was an amazing series to watch as a Piston fan and a fan of great defense. It was the one NBA Playoff moment I'll never forget.