Joel Embiid's Insane 85-Footer May Be the Best Miss in NBA History

The Phoenix Suns defeated the Philadelphia 76ers Wednesday night in a matchup featuring two of the NBA's top teams. It was an entertaining game that came down to the last second, during which Joel Embiid came ever so close to sinking one of the most improbable buzzer-beaters in league history.

With 0.8 seconds remaining, Chris Paul had a chance to salt the game away from the free-throw line. But his second attempt came up short and bounded into the hands of Embiid, who seamlessly flung an 85-footer in the other direction. It was right on line, hitting the backboard and circling every part of the rim like some sort of inanimate leather Magellan.

Embiid scored 38 points and grabbed 17 rebounds and put the undermanned Sixers, who were missing Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris, on his back. It was a remarkable performance before the Hail Mary toss, which would have been legendary had it found the bottom of the net.

The Suns got 28 points on 10-of-17 shooting from Chris Paul and are now a league-best 19-7 on the road. Paul has dished out 103 assists in the month of April while only turning the ball over 13 times over 11 games.

There isn't a centralized location housing all the "best misses" in basketball lore so this could be a prisoner-of-the-moment opinion, but Embiid's long-distance fling has to be among the most memorable and impressive missed shots the league has ever seen. Of course, that and a quarter can get you a piece of fruit-shaped bubble gum from a sketchy mall candy dispenser that hasn't been refilled for two years.

Still cool.