Call it the luck of the draw, but Robert Horry struck gold by earning seven championship rings with four NBA franchises. His legacy as an NBA player can be boiled down to his numerous season-saving shots, which will forever live on in the world of YouTube. Horry has made a name for himself with the Houston Rockets, the Phoenix Suns, the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs.
Wait…
The Suns?!
Yeah, you read that right.
If you’re an NBA aficionado, then you’ll be able to pinpoint a renowned moment or two that revolved around Robert Horry in each jersey he wore. In his time with the Rockets, he sealed the victory for the Houston Rockets in Game 3 of the 1995 Finals. With the Spurs, Horry bailed the team out in Game 5 of the 2005 NBA Finals. As a Laker, Big Shot Bob salvaged the Los Angeles Lakers’ season in Game 4 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals.
Now think about any historic shots Robert Horry made with the Phoenix Suns.
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To be fair, Horry only appeared in 32 games for the purple and orange before they shipped him out to the spotlight of Los Angeles on January 10, 1997.
How did a 26-year-old Robert Horry find himself in Phoenix, Arizona, and how did a towel of all things lead to a trade after 32 forgettable matches?
Let’s take this back to the beginning.
The 1996–1997 Houston Rockets were desperate for a push towards NBA supremacy. They were two seasons removed from their historical championship run and had just been swept in the second round by the Seattle Supersonics in the prior postseason. Headlined by wilting superstars Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, the Rockets gambled and brought in another ageing, languishing former superstar.
On August 19, 1996, the Houston Rockets shipped Mark Bryant, Sam Cassell, Chucky Brown and Robert Horry to the Phoenix Suns. In return, the Rockets received the great, podgy Charles Barkley and a 1999 second-round draft pick (which turned into Tyrone Washington).
After playing a key role in the Rockets’ championship campaigns, Robert Horry found himself in a new home after spending the past four years in Houston.
The Phoenix Suns during these times were a team that had just demolished their worn-out infrastructure, seeking a fresh identity. Gone were the glorious days of the Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson era. They shattered the last resemblance of these times into bits when Barkley was dealt away to Houston as Kevin Johnson still hung around.
Perhaps the Suns pulled away with the biggest bang for their buck, crowned as the winners of this deal. Aside from the invaluable Mark Bryant and Chucky Brown, Phoenix attained young, potential-filled players who proved themselves in their time with the Rockets.
Sam Cassell enjoyed a breakout year in his last season with Houston, making a name for himself as a 6th Man of the Year candidate. Additionally, Robert Horry found his role as an athletic forward who could stretch the floor and bail his team out late in the clutch. The Suns appeared to be winners of the trade.
Meanwhile, Barkley, who at this point had gone from “Sir Charles” to “The Incredible Bulk,” butted heads with the Houston front office, creating a ticking time bomb within the franchise. It was only a matter of time before Barkley saw himself out the door.
Not bad for the Suns, right?
Well…
It was bad.
After losing the season opener to the Shaq-led Los Angeles Lakers, the Phoenix Suns headed home to face off against the Houston Rockets, featuring newly acquired Charles Barkley. They gave the Suns a good ‘ol drubbing as “Sir Charles” showed the Phoenix crowd what he was capable of — 20 points, 33 rebounds and 2 blocks on 70.6 TS%.
The new kids on the block (Sam Cassell and Robert Horry) produced mixed performances. On one side, Cassell had a passable outing as he recorded 22 points and 5 assists on 54.5 TS%. On the other, Horry could not hit a shot to save his life, going 3/10 on the field and 0/3 on three-point attempts. He recorded 6 points and 5 rebounds on 30.0 TS%.
Things never looked up from this point on.
A disappointing loss to the hideous Vancouver Grizzlies marked Phoenix’s eight loss in eight games, kicking off the season with an 0–8 record. This was enough for head coach Cotton Fitzsimmons to call quits and say, “I’m too old for this sh*t.”
Enter: Danny Ainge.
Ainge was a former Sun who had just retired from playing in the NBA in the prior season. Now, he found himself as the captain of a ship which was slowly capsizing.
Fast forward to January 5, 1997, the Phoenix Suns were still dreadful as they attained a 10–22 record. A healthy Kevin Johnson alongside Danny Manning, newcomer Jason Kidd, and rookie Steve Nash was not enough to nudge the Suns over the .500 mark. Robert Horry had been disappointing, and Sam Cassell showed flashes of brilliance before he was shipped out to Dallas.
On a chilly winter evening, the Phoenix Suns were set to battle the Boston Celtics, a team equally laughable as the Suns.
In the battle of all battles, akin to Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier, The Battle of Helm’s Deep, and The Office vs. The Warehouse, the Suns and Celtics fixture had been a back-and-forth affair all evening long.
With 7:12 left in the fourth quarter, the Boston Celtics had created some cushion for themselves with a five-point lead. Coach Danny Ainge benched Robert Horry in favour of Rex Chapman after Mark Bryant committed a foul.
Horry had been masterful all night, shooting 1/4 from the field, almost as if he was a double agent who secretly worked for the Boston Celtics.
As Robert Horry walked over to the bench, Danny Ainge shared a few words to the towering forward as a white towel slung over his shoulder. The unknown string of words which Ainge uttered to his player will never be revealed, but whatever he said, it rubbed Horry the wrong way.
The fuse was getting shorter and shorter as the Suns’ bench seemed to prepare for a nasty argument. Horry fired back with “blah blah blah” and Ainge had reached his boiling point, raising his voice to the sullen big man.
Then it happened.
In a moment of raw, unfiltered exasperation, Robert Horry loaded his ultimate weapon, aimed at his coach and without hesitating, fired the icky, sweaty towel.
Target hit.
The towel was catapulted perfectly at Ainge’s face, giving the unlucky victim enough time to have a whiff of the classic Robert Horry: Towel In Your Face all-natural body spray. Horry walked away from Danny Ainge as the coach’s body slouched over and made a face that exclaimed, “did he really just do that?!”
Meanwhile, Robert Horry’s dignity and respect disintegrated faster than Michael Jordan’s stint in baseball.
Eventually, the whistle blew, signifying the end of a fruitful night — Celtics win 109–102.
Two days later, the Phoenix Suns suspended Robert Horry for two games without pay. This sentence would have been longer, but CBA stipulations capped the punishment at two matches.
“I’m of the old school, so I would have taken much sterner action if we weren’t limited by the bargaining agreement.”
— Jerry Colangelo (via The Spokesman-Review)
On the same day, Robert Horry acknowledged his mistake and apologized to Danny Ainge along with the rest of the team.
But it didn’t matter, as it was too late.
With Horry’s childish act and disappointing performances in mind, the Phoenix Suns gifted the 26-year-old forward alongside Joe Kleine to the Los Angeles Lakers. In exchange, the Suns received Cedric Ceballos and Rumeal Robinson.
The rest was history.
The Phoenix Suns salvaged their season with a 40–42 record, appearing in the postseason as the Seattle Supersonics defeated them in five games.
Joe Kleine and Rumeal Robinson never panned out, and the only noteworthy detail about either career is that Kleine rode the ’98 Chicago Bulls bench and stole a championship ring. Cedric Ceballos enjoyed a bounce-back season as a Phoenix Sun and would play four more seasons in the NBA.
Meanwhile, Robert Horry went on to join championship-calibre squads, earning three straight championship rings with the Los Angeles Lakers. Somehow, someway, this trade catapulted Horry’s career while saving numerous championship parades.
Also, Horry’s personality as a Suns villain kicked in again in the 2007 postseason when he hip-checked Steve Nash and altered the series as the Spurs strolled through the playoffs, earning the Larry O’Brien trophy.
Once a villain, always a villain.
Researching the details of this forgotten event has convinced me that Robert Horry is luck’s favourite human being. There is no way that a childish action leads to a future trade to a team that would later three-peat with one of the greatest duos in NBA history. Not to mention, he’d later join the San Antonio Spurs and continued to break hearts all across the United States.
In a different universe where I can be seen living lavishly in my $30 million home, Robert Horry never would have thrown that towel, never would have triggered a trade to a future dynasty and never would have made a name for himself as one of the greatest role players of all time. He would have just been another role player who reached the pinnacle of their career in their early years in the NBA.
But in this reality, Horry is regularly referred to as “Big Shot Bob” and needs two hands to count all the championships he earned in his storied 17-year career.
Robert Horry can jump off the Empire State Building with his arms and legs tied together with an inextricable rope and land perfectly fine with his body intact. He’ll do all of this while saving his team in the clutch, turning into Superman when the game is too close for comfort in the dying moments of the game.
And that’s how you describe Robert Horry to an ill-informed basketball fan.
