INDIANAPOLIS -- Herb Williams of the Indiana Pacers sank an 81-foot shot at the halftime buzzer of an NBA game Wednesday night in what may have been the longest basket in league history.
The 3-point shot gave Indiana a 52-42 halftime lead over Sacramento, but the Pacers blew a 20-point lead and lost 88-87.
Williams pulled down a rebound to the left of the Kings basket, then hurled the ball the length of the court. The ball hit solidly in the net and fell through as the buzzer sounded.
At halftime, Pacer vice president Ray Compton found a tape measure and walked off the distance from where Williams stood to the center of the basket where the ball went through. The distance was 81 feet, but there was debate over whether Williams' feet were farther from the basket when the shot left his hand.
After talking with NBA officials, a Pacers spokesman said there was no way to tell if the shot set a record because no such statistics are kept. League officials also told the Pacers there was no set method of measuring the distance of a shot.
The basket definitely was not a team or pro basketball record, losing out to a shot made by Jerry Harkness when the Pacers were in the defunct American Basketball Association.
Harkness, now a radio commentator for the Pacers, sank an 88-foot shot off an inbounds pass at the final buzzer on Nov. 13, 1967 to give the visiting Pacers a 119-118 victory over the Dallas Chaparrals.
'Mine was from the corner so the distance to the basket was a little longer,' said Harkness. 'But it was still a great shot (by Williams).'
Williams, a 6-foot-11, 240-pound fifth-year veteran from Ohio State, made no comments after the loss, which dropped Indiana to 10-24.
The longest measured shot in a college basketball game was 89-feet-10 by Bruce Morris of Marshall against Appalachian State in February 1984.
