Photo: John W. McDonough/SI, Text: Colin Becht

Magic Johnson works against Michael Jordan during Game 5 of the 1991 NBA Finals. Jordan dropped 30 points and dished out 10 assists to secure his first NBA title.

The NBA introduced the Three-Point Shootout competition during the 1986 All-Star Weekend and for the first two years of the competition, Bird was dominant.

Bird won the first three three-point shootouts ever, and even would walk into the locker room before the contests and ask the other contestants who was going to finish second.

Dale Ellis had one of the sweetest shots the league has ever seen, and he was poised to give Bird almost all he could handle. Ellis smoothly knocked down shot after shot in the final round, leaving a score of 15. After tying Ellis with 15 points and with the last ball, the money ball, in his hands Larry ‘Legend’ Bird fired and a second later with the ball barely off his fingers, turned and walked away with his index finger in the air.

Scores from the 1988 Three-Point Shootout:

FIRST Round:
Larry Bird: 17
Dale Ellis: 16
Byron Scott: 19
Detlef Schrempf: 15
Danny Ainge: 14 
Mark Price: 14 
Trent Tucker: 11 
Craig Hodges: 10

SEMIFINALS:
Larry Bird: 23
Dale Ellis: 12
Byron Scott: 11
Detlef Schrempf: 5

FINALS:
Larry Bird: 17
Dale Ellis: 15

Highlights from Larry Bird vs Dale Ellis 1988 Finals:

Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi are retired professional men’s tennis players who were ranked World No. 1 during the 1990s, Sampras holding the world’s top-rank spot for a then-record 286 weeks while Agassi held it for 101 weeks. With contrasting styles and temperaments, they played each other 34 times from 1989 through 2002, with Sampras winning 20 of their matches, and Agassi winning 14. It has been named as one of the greatest tennis rivalries of all time.

In Grand Slam tournaments, they played in five finals, with Sampras winning four. They met for the first time in a Grand Slam final at the 1990 US Open, with Agassi the favorite because of his top three ranking even though Sampras had defeated former World No. 1 players Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe on the way to the final. Sampras defeated Agassi in straight sets.

The next time the pair met at a Grand Slam final was at the 1995 - 83rd Australian Open. Agassi beat Pete Sampras in four sets.

This celebration of the Games was held from 26 January to 5 February 1956. The city was originally slated to host the 1944 event but that was cancelled due to World War II. The Cortina Games were unique in that all of the venues except one were within walking distance of each other.

Thirty-two nations—the largest number of participating Winter Olympic countries to that point—competed in the four disciplines and twenty-four events. The Soviet Union made its Winter Olympics debut and won more medals than any nation. Austrian Toni Sailer became the first person to sweep all three alpine skiing events in a single Olympics. The figure skating competition was held outdoors for the last time at these Games. Logistically, the only problem encountered was a lack of snow at the alpine skiing events. To remedy this, the Italian army transported large amounts of snow to ensure the courses were adequately covered.

These are the top ten nations that won medals at the 1956 Winter Olympics:

1 — Soviet Union: 7 Gold, 3 Silver, 6 Bronze = 16 Total
2 — Austria: 4 Gold, 3 Silver, 4 Bronze = 11 Total
3 — Finland: 3 Gold, 3 Silver, 1 Bronze = 7 Total
4 — Switzerland: 3 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze = 6 Total
5 — Sweden: 2 Gold, 4 Silver, 4 Bronze = 10 Total
6 — United States: 2 Gold, 3 Silver, 2 Bronze = 7 Total
7 — Norway: 2 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze = 4 Total
8 — Italy: 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 0 Bronze = 3 Total
9 — Germany: 1 Gold, 0 Silver, 1 Bronze = 2 Total
10 — Canada: 0 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze = 3 Total