When it comes to championship teams and Hall of Fame players, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics are so far beyond the rest of the NBA that it’s not even fair. These two rivals have lorded over the league since time immemorial, often clashing on the biggest stage in a matchup that somehow transcends the Finals itself.
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There isn’t a podcast out there that respects and celebrates Lakers history better than Byron Scott’s Fast Break. Scott, who both played for and coached the purple and gold, often has former Lakers on to share their anecdotes and perspective on the team’s greatest seasons and players.
This week, Big Shot Bob, Robert Horry himself joined the pod. Horry won three titles with the Lakers and four others in his career, establishing himself as one of the winningest player of the modern era and one of the most clutch shooters ever. On the podcast, Horry was asked to name his top five Lakers of all time, and he approached it in an interesting way.
First of all, he didn’t even name Magic Johnson, a guy that he had praised earlier for being his favorite player growing up. “When everybody says your top five players, you take Jordan out, then you go from there,” he explained. “I’m taking Magic out. He’s just on a whole another level.”
Fair enough, though the first name Horry did add is probably wondering why he didn’t get the same treatment. “The next pick is definitely Kareem,” he said. “I think what Kareem did is incredible. We always talk about the greatest players of all time, we never mention him, which is a slap in his face, big time, because he’s the only one that changed rules.”
Horry couldn’t have been more complimentary of Kareem, but it seems strange to say that Magic deserves his own tier while Kareem doesn’t. Then again, the Lakers have had arguably five of the 10 best players of all-time, so they kind of all deserve special treatment.
One of those is Jerry West, whom Horry named next, plus Shaq and Kobe, both of whom he won those three titles with.
Ask anyone to name their five greatest Lakers, and 99% of those lists would probably be made up of Magic, Kareem, West, Shaq and Kobe in some order. You have to respect Horry for mixing it up and adding another layer to the conversation, because the direction he took it in was really interesting.
“This is gonna be the odd one down the stretch here,” he said. “It’s Phil. I know he didn’t play, but I think it’s Phil, because the way he was able to bring Shaq and Kobe together.”
Talk about a curveball! You don’t often hear a coach mentioned among the greatest five in a franchise’s history, even one as great as Phil Jackson. It’s certainly not unwarranted, though, because he easily could have ridden off into the sunset with the six rings he won with the Bulls, but instead he ushered in a new era of Lakers greatness while expertly managing the dueling egos of Shaq and Kobe.
Jackson is one of the few people with more rings than Horry, and Big Shot Bob got to see first-hand how great a coach he was.
This has me wondering what name Horry would include if he elevated Kareem up to the Magic tier. Would Pat Riley get in for the way he ushered in the Showtime era? Or would he go back to a player like Elgin Baylor, LeBron James, or James Worthy?
Either way, this was a great list with a fun wrinkle. Kudos to Horry for coming through in the clutch one more time.
