Robert Horry was never a superstar, nor did he even make it into the All-Star Game. Nevertheless, he already held legendary status at active times – because in important moments nobody was cooler than him. That’s another reason why almost no player possesses more precious metal than Big Shot Rob. Almost everything would have turned out quite differently. Robert Horry is 48 years old today.
It’s June 19th, 2005 and the finals are in full swing, 2-2 between the Spurs and the reigning champion, the Pistons. After San Antonio had won the first two games, the tide seems to be turning now – because after two clear victories in a row Detroit looks like the better team for a long time also in game 5.
This is mainly because Tim Duncan experiences a game to forget and has a hard time defending the two wallaces (Rasheed and Ben). The good performance of Manu Ginobili alone will not be enough; someone has to show himself, take responsibility, otherwise the game is, otherwise the championship is in danger.
That someone is Robert Keith Horry. In a way this comes as a surprise: Horry doesn’t make a single point in the first half. In four games of the series, the 34-year-old has scored exactly 30 points, not a single game with at least 20 points throughout the season.
In a way, however, it comes as no surprise that he has saved his best performance of the season for the biggest possible stage. He’s Robert Horry, after all.
Throughout his career, he has delivered an infinite number of decisive plays, taken important throws and given his respective teams exactly what they needed in the moments of greatest need. The nickname “Big Shot Rob” is no coincidence, just like the five championships he had already collected with the Rockets and the Lakers.
The game winner for the Lakers in game 3 of the first round series against Portland 2002. 3 in the end of game 3 of the 95 finals for Houston. The Buzzerbeater in the 2002 Western Finals against the Kings. Horry was never the star of his team, he never took the most litters. Yet he was involved in more legendary moments than almost anyone else.
If he had stopped in 2003, after his time at the Lakers ended badly despite three championships, a certain legendary status would have been certain. But you hadn’t seen his masterpiece back then.
Because that’s what he delivered in that fifth game against the Pistons. At the end of the third quarter, a three-pointer was his first goal of the match, followed by the big horry show in the last round. He added three triples and an incomprehensible lefty-dunk about Rip Hamilton, which hardly anyone would have thought he could do.
He scored 13 points in the round, but it wasn’t enough – yet. San Antonio could not break away, only Duncan missed three free throws and the last throw in regulation at the last minute – a tip-in he had probably hit 600 times in a row before. Overtime it is. Good thing Horry still had a few arrows in his quiver.
Again nothing came together for a short time at San Antonio, the Spurs did not score a single point for almost three minutes. Again we stood with our backs to the wall, again the season was in the balance. And again Horry made sure that the Spurs got away with a black eye.
With 1’25” to go, Big Shot Rob was 2 points behind on the basket. Almost 80 seconds later he stood in the corner and was criminally released by Sheed – a sensationally stupid decision.
Horry’s team-mate Brent Barry once recalled: “Robert couldn’t believe it. He already grinned disbelievingly before the litter, probably with the thought “Seriously, you leave ME open?” Ginobili found him, Horry pulled the trigger – and the Spurs won the game.
Finally, Horry had made 21 of the last 35 spur points, including the most important litters in the fourth quarter and in overtime. Duncan was unwilling to let him go after the game, because given his 7 missed free throws and the misplaced tip-in, the two-time MVP would have been most critical if he had lost.
Duncan was accordingly grateful when the Spurs had actually won their third championship after seven games – the sixth for Horry. “That was probably the best performance I’ve ever seen,” Timmy later said about Horry in Game 5 before he started making fun of the phenomenon of his career.
“That’s Robert. He just hangs around all season, he doesn’t care about anything,” Duncan dictated at the post-match press conference. “But then you put him in the fourth quarter of an important game and he says,’Okay, time to play!’ He can just flip that switch. He’s not interested in the game until it’s an important one.”
This quote sums up what distinguished Horry about his career. Bill Simmons once compared him to a world-class poker player: “He’s the one sitting at the table with a bunch of chips, who never plays a bad hand and you’re afraid when he looks you right in the eye. You never remember the hands he lost, but everyone he wins. When he leaves the table, you hope you’ll never have to see him again.”
Indeed, it was impressive how well Horry knew about his own strengths and weaknesses. He never forced anything, not least because he didn’t care about statistics. He concentrated only on his qualities: strong help defense, the ability to defend both forward positions, a nose for offensive rebounds. And of course his massive cojones.
However, he had to work on these, as he himself made clear in an enlightening feature for the Player’s Tribune. “I wasn’t born cold as ice,” Horry said. Later on, he revealed in detail how his mentality came about and made it clear that his career could have been completely different.
Ironically, his first team, the Rockets, wanted to get rid of him in his second season. There was also an agreement with the Pistons who wanted to hand over Sean Elliott for him – and Horry was on the ground. It had been his dream to play for Houston because Hakeem Olajuwon was his idol and the season for H-Town was actually great.
The Rockets wanted more scoring, though, and Horry was too selfless for them. “I was one of the few players ever to be traded because they didn’t throw enough,” he later looked back. His reason: He looked up to Hakeem so much that he just kept passing the ball to him in the post.
Arriving in Detroit, he was completely desperate – the days of the Bad Boys were long gone, and for Horry only victory was in the foreground. However, the Pistons were further away from a title than Dennis Rodman from a 50-40-90 season. A picture of Horry went around the world as he sat in a suite during a Pistons game and seemed heavily drunk. He had drunk “a few beers”, as he later said for the best.
He should have played, but Elliott still had to complete his medical check. Just a day later Elliott failed, the trade had burst and Horry straight back to Houston. With a new mentality: “Fuck it, I’m throwing. “I’m just gonna play my style from now on.”
The burst trade was a Deus Ex Machina who fundamentally changed Horry’s career. “Today everyone knows me as Big Shot Rob. The reality is that without this medical emergency everything could have gone differently. “I might’ve been known as that depressed guy hanging up there in the suite.”
As you know, this is not the case today. Images associated with Horry are those of victory cigars, an icy face, legendary throws and seven championship rings. Nobody who didn’t run into Bill Russell’s Celtics in the’60s has more of it than him.
Was luck a big part of that? Of course – it won’t work without it anyway. Horry had outstanding timing and played with several of the best players of his generation. With Hakeem, with Shaq, with Kobe, with Duncan. But he was also the architect of his own happiness.
Big Shot Rob gave his teams an extra dimension, a plus in coolness and understanding of the game. He was never in the front row, never could have carried a team. But when he was needed, he was there. To say it with Tim Duncan: “That’s Robert.”