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Tales From the Big Shot Rob Archive

In the previous post I indicated that Chris Webber had derided a Robert Horry game winning three pointer versus the Sacramento Kings as a "lucky shot." He actually had a more nuanced view of what happened, saying that it was a "lucky play" in that the ball was tipped straight to Horry but that it was not a "lucky shot" because Horry has hit big shots many times before. Vlade Divac was less complimentary, however; here is a passage from David Leon Moore's 5/27/02 USA Today article about game four of that year's Western Conference Finals:

"The Kings discussed luck's role in their collapse.

'It was a lucky play,' Webber said. 'The coach didn't draw it up. It wasn't the second or third option. It was lucky play.'

'Horry's shot, that wasn't luck. That was a big shot, and that's a big-time player.'

Divac, a former Laker who had 23 points, saw it a little differently.

'It was just a lucky shot, that's all,' he said. 'You don't need to have skill in that kind of situation. You just throw it. If it goes in, it goes in.'

Whoa, said Horry.

Lucky shot?

'A lucky shot is one of those guys who has no form,' he said. 'If you look at this shot, it was straight form. Vlade shouldn't have tipped it out there. It wasn't no luck shot. I've been doing that all my career. He should know. He better read a paper or something.'

That will be easy now. Horry will be in all the papers Monday."

As for Rasheed Wallace leaving Horry open at the end of Tuesday's game, the first few lines of the same Moore column are very appropriate:

"As the Los Angeles Lakers inbounded the ball at the end, two points down with a chance to tie or win a game they seemed to have been blown out of in the first half, one of the guys along press row whispered, 'I wouldn't leave Robert Horry right now if my momma told me to.'

Smart fellow."

posted by David Friedman @ 10:11 PM

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