Dubai: He has more NBA titles than anyone who wasn’t part of the 1970s Boston Celtics — yet you might never have heard of him.
He didn’t score 20 points a game, he didn’t appear on shoe commercials or cereal boxes, and he didn’t release a rap album. But what Robert Horry did was win. Seven titles with three different teams was no coincidence from the man they called ‘Big Shot Rob’.
A 6ft 10in (2.08m) anomaly, Horry was just as comfortable on the three-point line as under the basket. He averaged just seven points a game for his career, but when the game was on the line, the ball was in his hands. Championship seasons for the Houston Rockets, LA Lakers and San Antonio Spurs from 1995 to 2007 all featured big, late-game performances from the forward.
It was during the Lakers’ three-year title run from 2001 to 2003 that Horry carved out a niche as a cold-blooded shooter, making a game-clinching three-pointer in at least one game in four straight play-off series. In 2005 for the Spurs, at the age of 34, he scored 21 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, including the game-winner.
On top of all that, he played more games in the NBA playoffs than anyone else in history.
“I am proud of the fact that I was able to accomplish some things,” the perpetually modest NBA legend told Gulf News at SummerFest in Abu Dhabi, a master class featuring some of the sporting world’s biggest names.
“People always expect the guys who are the stars to perform well. But you have got to remember there are 12 guys on a team, and all of those guys were stars on their high-school and college teams. I tell people sometimes, in order to win, you have got to take a back seat. As great as Kobe [Bryant, LA Lakers star] was, he had to take a back seat to Shaq [former teammate Shaquille O’Neal]. Those guys are probably a little better than me.”
Yet it was Horry who always seemed to hit the big shot with the game on the line.
In game four of the 2002 Western Conference Finals, the Lakers were down to the Sacramento Kings and trailing the seven-game series two games to one. On the final possession, both Kobe and Shaq missed easy shots at the basket. The ball bounced right to Horry, who hit a three-pointer as time expired to win the game. The next day, Magic Johnson called Horry ‘one of the 10 best clutch players in league history’.
“I honestly put it down to confidence,” said Horry. “You have to be very confident in what you do, because if you’re not, guys who play sports are very perceptive. I can see if you are worried about something on the court and your teammates can see it. If you’re confident, your teammates can be confident in you also and they will get you the ball, knowing that the end result will be you knocking down the shot. Believing in yourself is the biggest thing about playing sports at all levels. It's about having the confidence to go out and do it.”
For Horry, that started almost as soon as he had become an NBA player. Drafted by the Rockets in 1992, he was quickly thrust into a frontcourt starting role alongside one of the greatest centres to play the game, Hakeem ‘The Dream’ Olajuwon. Together, the pair won titles in 1994 and 1995.
And visiting the UAE during Ramadan brought Horry some good memories of his former teammate. Olajuwon, a Nigeria-born naturalised US citizen, was a devout Muslim who fasted during the Holy Month — regardless of when it fell in the NBA season.
“Imagine, he has to play 40 minutes a game in the NBA and not be able to drink any water, and he had to get up at 4am to eat,” said Horry.
“It was almost like the NBA used to challenge him right in the midst of Ramadan. We had games at 7pm, so he ate that early in the morning and couldn’t eat before the game. At half-time, he would eat some dates for iftar. We would say during the game ‘we need to end this quick because Dream is fasting, you can’t keep him out there long’.
“He was a devout Muslim. He didn’t veer away from it. He even had his prayer room and we would have to wait, and we didn’t mind because we respected his religion. He would pray and then he would come back and play the game. He was great, and he still is probably. He still could play.
“I said this all the time. People are always going to talk about Bill Russell, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, but if you pick top five players of all-time, [Olajuwon] definitely has to be in there. The things he was able to do on the court, the guys who played against him know he was a beast, and I mean that in the most loving way. There was a lot of animals on the court, but he was a beast.”
Olajuwon’s reputation as one of the greats was highlighted again when Miami Heat star LeBron James, the world’s best player, sought him out for off-season workouts to try to improve his moves close to the basket. As did Dwight Howard, widely considered the game’s best centre, who this summer moved from the Lakers to the Rockets.
“Yeah, but there are some things you just can’t teach,” said Horry when asked about these one-to-one training camps. “LeBron has got all types of skills. He and Kobe might be the only two players that may be able to repeat what [Olajuwon] did, but Dwight? He can’t do what Dream did. I can’t do it, you can’t do it, there are very rare occasions when someone can come in and do what he did.”
So, in between passing on his considerable knowledge to the UAE’s basketball hopefuls, what does a 42-year-old giant of a man do with his spare time in Abu Dhabi? Well, he does exactly what the rest of us do.
“It has been great,” said the charismatic star, beaming like a child with a new toy. “We went to the palace, we went to the mosque, went pearl-diving.
“We have been doing all the touristy things. The most fun I had was riding a camel. That was exciting. It’s my first time to Abu Dhabi. I have been to the Middle East before; I did a USA tour and a couple of other things for the NBA.
“Most trips don’t put a smile on your face like this one has. When was the last time you went to a water park as an adult? Sometimes you have to do fun stuff and keep the kid inside you alive. I’m just mad I couldn’t have stayed longer.
“But man, it’s hot. The first day I got here I was like ‘wow’. I knew it was going to be hot here because it’s the desert. I live in Houston, Texas, and it’s hot there, but it’s nothing like this.
“It’s hot and very, very humid. I think this is the first time in my life I got a tan through my shirt. I had a shirt on and a tank top under it. I took my shirt off and I said ‘What the heck? I got a tan of my tank top’. It’s been an experience.”
Kobe heading to UAE
A current Laker is heading to the UAE in September. Kobe Bryant, at 34, remains an NBA superstar with a fearsome reputation, on and off the court. But Horry insisted his former teammate is as likeable off the court as he is ferocious on it.
“To get to know Kobe is to understand him,” said Horry. “People think he’s cocky, but he’s confident. I always liked him and I always liked the fact that he worked hard. He is the hardest-working player I ever played with, and one of the smartest. I have two top smart players; Kobe and [former Spurs guard] Brent Barry. The hardest-working player ever? Kobe.
“He is a great guy. If you have the pleasure of speaking with him, say ‘I got a deck of cards — do you want to play spades?’. I taught him how to play spades so he might start laughing about that.”
