Rankings the best NBA nicknames of all time

14. Big Shot Bob

…or “Rob,” if you prefer.

What do you know about Robert Horry, as you sit there right now? His time partnering with Latrell Sprewell at the University of Alabama, where he set the school record for career blocked shots with 282, probably doesn’t come to mind. His selection to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team in 1993 is lost in the shuffle. His record for 3-pointers made in an NBA Finals game without a miss, seven, may ring a bell, as may him having been the first player ever to record 100 steals, 100 blocks and 100 3-pointers. His status as the namesake of a blog run by yours truly, I guarantee, does not strike a chord.

No, when you think of Robert Horry, you think of the game-winning shots: as a Houston Rocket, hitting a 3 over Horace Grant in Game 3 of the 1995 Finals; As a Laker, knocking down the rebounded ball that Vlade Divac had mistakenly hit toward him for a 3 at the buzzer in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals; As a Spur, finding the opening against the Pistons in 2005 to drill a 3 in Game 5 of the Finals.

Robert Horry is Big Shot Bob, the singular person you’d most want on your team to be wide open with the clock nearing zero. While he did have a bit of “right place at the right time” to him, he made the most of it: he is the only player in NBA history to win seven championships while not being a member of the 1960s Boston Celtics. Seven! That includes two with the Rockets, three with the Lakers and two with the Spurs. He played with some of the generation-defining players and teams of the past thirty years, earning his place and an immortal nickname.