Game 4 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals was slipping away, and the Sacramento Kings were about to seize a 3-1 stranglehold. The scoreboard read 99-97. Two seconds left. The Los Angeles Lakers, the two-time defending champions, had just watched Kobe Bryant, their cold-blooded scorer, drive to the rim and miss a contested layup. Before anyone could blink, Shaquille O’Neal, their dominant interior force, grabbed the rebound and missed a point-blank putback. Then came the tip. 

Vlade Divac, thinking fast, swatted the ball out to kill the clock. It landed in the hands of Robert Horry, 26 feet from the hoop, standing at the top of the arc. No hesitation. No dribble. Just a smooth, fearless release. The Staples Center erupted before the ball even touched nylon. The replay would later show 0.6 seconds left when it left his fingers. The Lakers stole a 100-99 victory, and with it, the momentum that would define their three-peat.

Even though that shot didn’t come in the NBA Finals, it might as well have. Lose that game, and the Lakers face a 3-1 deficit against the league’s best team—a near-impossible comeback even for a Kobe-and-Shaq-led squad. Now, more than 2 decades later, Shaquille O’Neal is still talking about it. When Dax Shepard sat down with him on the Armchair Expert podcast on August 11, he joked that the one Laker he’d love to hang with wasn’t Shaq or Kobe but Robert Horry. Shaq didn’t just agree, he doubled down:

“I love Horry. You know, Kobe and I get a lot of credit, but we definitely would not have won any without the others. So, I always try to share the name. Big Shot Bob saved both of our a-s a lot.” Considering the stakes that night, Shaq isn’t exaggerating. Horry’s buzzer-beater turned the series into a war they could still win. Los Angeles dropped Game 5 but roared back in Games 6 and 7, then steamrolled the Nets in the Finals to clinch their third straight championship. If Horry had missed, history might read very differently. Thankfully, he gets to remember that one shot as the highlight of his entire career: 

“That’s one of my greatest moments, growing up a Laker fan…  I wanna have this play played at my funeral because it’s the most exhilarating thing.” Though he would go on to win two more titles with the Spurs, that moment with the Lakers defined Horry’s legacy and was just one part of why Shaq held him in such high regard. Over the years, their mutual respect grew, extending beyond the court to Shaq’s rare public advocacy for Horry’s Hall of Fame recognition.

Giving credit where it’s due: Shaq on Horry

Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t often advocate Hall of Fame honors for other players (Rudy Gobert would argue it’s the opposite, in fact). He did for Robert Horry, though. Shaq, Kobe Bryant, and Hakeem Olajuwon have all campaigned for Horry to be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame. O’Neal even responded to a poll on this subject on X.com with “The answer is HMF Yes, and yes I’m yelling.”

Horry humbly dismisses HoF honors for himself. Regardless, he reciprocates Shaq’s brotherhood like sort of agreeing on O’Neal’s opinions about Rudy Gobert recently. On Shepard’s podcast, Shaq gave shoutouts to Rick Fox, Brian Shaw, and Gary Payton Sr., too. Not only for their support on the court. “He [Horry] was a great guy, and they really respected me. They knew me. They understood me.”

That shows. Despite sweeping O’Neal in the 1995 Finals, Horry has publicly stated that Prime Shaq was better than Hakeem Olajuwon. It’s because of getting a taste of Shaq as an opponent much earlier. Horry used to be a college star at Alabama. Until he went up against LSU’s dominant force, that was Shaquille O’Neal.

An Alabama-LSU matchup was billed as a ‘battle’ of two great foes. Horry corrected, “It ain’t like a battle. Shaq dunks all over Robert Horry.” O’Neal was massive and breaking backboards well before he went #1 in the 1992 NBA draft. Horry spent their college game getting out of the mountainous Big Diesel and getting dunked on. Now they tell stories about it.