Sometimes, not often, and only for a short moment in time, something happens on the basketball court that can feel so real and so redeeming that it becomes moving.

It may seem silly for an outsider, but we know the feeling. When you’ve watched, worked with or played this sport as much as many of us have, we know. We know how basketball is about feelings, about struggling through hardship and not giving up, despite what people say. We understand what overcoming adversity means and we have felt the hard times on our own bodies.

Maybe that’s why this specific moment during the fourth quarter of the Dallas Mavericks win against the Denver Nuggets this Sunday felt so moving to me. In a game that meant so much, both for the standings but also for confidence going forward and as a test of how good this team actually is (as well as being a nationally televised game), it seemed like the culmination of a year’s worth of hard work. The manifestation of a new narrative – while improving the world just a little bit along the way.

Captured this moment of Luka Dončić protecting Kyrie Irving and the basketball… 😂 pic.twitter.com/gKkKpVwZW3

— Landon Thomas (@sixfivelando) March 17, 2024

It takes adversity to create a winning team. And Dallas has been through a lot of that the last year. From not making the playoffs and wild criticism of tanking, to national disbelief in the Luka Dončić-Kyrie Irving pairing working, to being ignored by national media and Luka Dončić being criticized and ignored in the MVP standings, despite putting up record-breaking numbers.

This season was always a story of redemption for Dallas. A story of making it despite all odds, of showing opponents and talking heads how silly they look when they don’t watch the games they talk about, of finding peace through maturity and trust.

And with all that in mind, maybe that was the reason why this moment in a game against the reigning champions was so moving.

It was the simple act of two people, standing feet apart, protecting a basketball in order to run some seconds off the clock. But it was also two of the greatest players the world has ever seen, who no one thought would work together, working together.

Luka, putting his hands up to protect Kyrie and the ball. A connection of the greats, a syncing of extraordinary talent and exceptional personalities. Two players with similar brilliance, maybe the best playmakers in the league, whose technical skills and IQ are one in a generation.

But this is also two players, who have felt similar pressures in their careers, who understand what it takes – and what it doesn’t.

Two players, one smaller, one larger, doing everything they can to get the win. Two players, one mature, who has reached his peak and a ring and a young superstar, still on the rise. One looking for peace and one looking for trouble.

One representing the best of American basketball and culture, and the other representing the best of European basketball culture and tradition. So different, yet so similar.

These two players, protecting each other in that moment in a common mission, felt like the coming together of two cultures and two traditions. At that moment, it wasn’t the differences we saw, but the similarities.

Look at this picture and tell me these psychos can't play together. Freggin love it. pic.twitter.com/64OwN4CbKh

— Jason Gallagher (@jga41agher) March 18, 2024

In this moment, and with the win that followed, these two forced the national media to look, they forced everyone to pay attention and change the narratives.

Right now, these two players are doing something more than playing well together. They are forcing the narrative that American stars don’t want to play with Europeans to end. And stopping the narrative that certain Europeans can’t play with stars.

The fact that the two clutch shots that resulted in the ensuing victory later on were made by both of these players – Luka’s three to tie the game and Kyrie’s already legendary game-winnerr – just cemented that.

Let’s enjoy Luka’s three pointer to tie the game with just 24 seconds left again:

Lukaaaaa! pic.twitter.com/Y6GOu23SBK

— Matej Sportinfo (@MatejSportinfo) March 17, 2024

And Kyrie’s left-handed, running hook shot about 20 feet from the basket. It shouldn’t have been possible, but here we have it:

LEFT HANDED, CONTESTED, OFF 1 LEG, AT THE BUZZER, FOR THE WIN

KYRIE IRVING IS JUST DIFFERENT 🔥 pic.twitter.com/9dyi2MkLr3

— MavsMuse (@MavsMuse) March 17, 2024

And while people and media, who for one reason or another dislike these players, will still criticize and complain, find flaws and show weird obsessions, this moment in time, and this game in particular, will stand out as a game that opened people’s eyes.

Maybe it helped make one or two fans understand that the best basketball is not just what the media talk about the most and that makes the highlight reels. And that the best basketball actually happens when you combine and embrace the best of traditions and cultures, instead of only holding on to your own way of doing things. The best basketball is the kind that moves you and makes you think – and that’s exactly what happened here.