Call for Responses
Okay, all you loyal NBA fans (and you few readers), I am calling for some responses to a very important question: How can Chauncey Billups be referred to Mr. Big Shot? Seriously, I need to know. I watch, on average, 80+ regular season games per year (my soon to be wife must really love me), and then I religiously watch nearly every single postseason game. I couldn’t stomach most of the Eastern Conference playoffs this season, that was just brutal. So where do all these “big shots” come from. Sure, I’ve seen Chauncey knock down a couple of jumpers at the end of the shot clock, but that happens all the time throughout the course of a game and a season.
Off the top of my head, I can only think of one or two game winners Chauncey has knocked down. And, those shots came during his short tenure with the Pistons. Before that, Chauncey was shipped around the league and never managed to remain with any team for more than one full season.
I think Chauncey Billups needs to apologize to Robert Horry for trying to rip off his name. Big Shot Rob has been hitting game winners for the entire duration of his career, and the majority of those shots were made during the postseason. He killed the Spurs as a Rocket. He killed the Suns as a Rocket. He killed the Knicks as a Rocket.
Then he went to Los Angeles, and continued to do what he does best, hit game winners. The obvious shot against the Sacramento Kings in the Western Conference finals comes to mind. But my friends, there were many more than that. He hit two coffin threes against the Spurs in 2001. He hit some backbreaking threes against the Blazers to destroy that stacked roster during the Lakers’ three-peat.
My college roommates and I used to regularly make jokes that Phil Jackson would swing by the Playboy Mansion where Horry was hanging out poolside for the entire regular season, just so Phil could personally drive him to the arena for the postseason. We would joke that Horry would then sit at the end of the bench smoking cigars and drinking scotch in a Hugh Hefner robe until Coach Jackson would call for him in the fourth quarter. We would constantly come up with exotic locations that the Lakers would have to search for Horry to pick him up for the only thing he cared about, winning postseason games. And every year, Horry would not disappoint us.
Today, I was sitting in my office with a short break between files, so I checked out the autographed picture of Horry burying the game-winner against the Pistons in 2005. It has Horry in the air after just releasing the shot. The ball is in mid arc, sailing through the air. Tayshaun Prince has gone flying by Horry with his left-hand dangling from trying to block the shot. Rasheed is standing there with his jaw dropped. Timmy and Ben Wallace are battling each other for position, and the shot clock shows 7.4 seconds left.
None of this, however, is what matters. The most important part of the picture are the fans. The detail of the framed picture allows you to see all the fans faces, even into the upper deck. I lost count of how many people look like Horry just shot their dog. You can even pick out a few people that have their hands completely over their face, because they already know the outcome. The best part is the lone Spurs fan that can be picked out of the crowd. He is the guy with his hands sky-high screaming in pure delight. These are the things you are used to seeing when you watch Big Shot Rob play. It is simple. He just makes game winning shots (and plays for that matter).
So, now, I need everyone out there, all you ‘net talkers, to provide me with some concrete examples of how ‘Mr. Big Shot’ has earned his name. Because, all I can think of right now are two ill-advised leaning three pointers that careened off the rim in the past two games. Then I think of his stinkbomb in Game 7 of the 2005 NBA Finals. You have to give me more than that.
