One of the more famous Los Angeles Lakers playoff moments revolves around the big shot-making of Robert Horry. His game-winning 3-pointer against the Sacramento Kings in the 2002 NBA Playoffs is an iconic memory. The shot came during a playoff run that ended in Horry’s fifth championship ring.
Horry went on to win two more championships with the San Antonio Spurs, but arguably never had a shot greater than the one against the Kings. Horry’s remarkable career finished with seven championships, tied for seventh-most among any player in NBA history. Each title-winning team included Horry and a dominant big man — Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neal and Tim Duncan.
While on Showtime’s All The Smoke podcast, Horry revealed who he thought was the best of the three:
“All the other teams I played for, the one common denominator was great big men. Think about it, Shaq, Tim Duncan. And if you said right now, name the top five big men, I played with three of them… Dream No. 1 by far. We don’t like to, nobody want to talk about it. I think you have these guys who are quiet. Think about it. Dream, he’s a really quiet guy, you can’t get him to do much, to say much. So we kind of veer away from him. We don’t talk about him, but to me, if you look at what he put together. Defensive player of the year, MVP in one season. All-time leading shot blocker. Those things that you look at his history and what he’s done for the game and where he, how he started the game. This dude didn’t play basketball growing up. Went to [University of Houston] where they wasn’t, think about it, we all went to college where they going to teach you. U of H they just roll the ball out there and he went to work. So I think with his body of work was just incredible. And he’s just a good dude too man. That’s what you have to think about. A good dude.”
Horry won back-to-back championships with Olajuwon on the Houston Rockets, three with Shaq on the Lakers and two with Duncan on the Spurs.
Hakeem had a monster 1995 playoffs run to win their second title, averaging 33 points and 10 rebounds per game. Neither Shaq or Duncan averaged more points during a championship-winning run.
Since he played and won with all three players, All The Smoke host Stephen Jackson acknowledged Horry has the credibility to reflect on who is the better player. O’Neal may agree with Horry too. In 2019, he said that Olajuwon was the greatest player he ever played against. High praise from one of the best big men ever.
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