The NBA Playoffs Will Be Different Without Robert Horry

Joe Smith is expected to join the Cleveland Cavaliers and Drew Gooden the San Antonio Spurs when each clears waivers late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning. Both solid players will help the Cavs and Spurs challenge the Celtics and Lakers for conference supremacy.

Neither forward pushes their respective squad over the top, but both should prove to be helpful additions.

There is one notable absence in the NBA's annual release-and-sign ritual. Robert Horry.

He has yet to fill out the retirement paperwork, but he's gone.

New Orleans Hornets and Phoenix Suns fans may forever remember him as "Cheap Shot Rob." Or the guy who threw a sweaty towel at Danny Ainge. What a shame.

The fans of each of the three squads for which he played will remember the savvy defender and clutch shooter who always seemed to know how to find the right spot in a critical playoff game. "Big Shot Rob" is more like it.

The NBA may never see another Robert Horry, if only because non-existent regular season players who know how to turn it on in the final moments of a game seven are hard to find.

I will never forget my lone encounter with Horry as a young Rockets fan. I raced toward the seats next to the locker room tunnel in The Summit before a game hoping one of the players would stop and sign an autograph before he left the court.

Horry did.

He waited patiently while I fished for my Robert Horry trading card. When I apologized in my high-pitched, elementary school voice, he just smiled and hugged me.

On the card he wrote "to my boy Robbie, Robert Horry." Looking at his penmanship on that card now, it's almost worse than mine, and that's saying something.

For the first time since the early 1990s, Horry will not be signing on any dotted lines. He will be at home, or possibly filming a reality show, instead of lining his feet up behind the arc for that big shot.

The NBA and the playoffs will miss him.

He shot 29 percent from three-point land in last year's playoffs. He was afraid to shoot. His defense seemed marginal at best.

Still, he drilled two huge treys in the second half of the Spurs' game seven victory in New Orleans. That was the first time in franchise history the Spurs have won a game seven on the road.

Horry liked to imprint himself all over big playoff games. Which shot was biggest?

Lakers fans will argue that his buzzer-beating three-pointer against the Sacramento Kings in game six should take the top prize. Horry, after all, gets booed at Arco Arena worse than Kobe Bryant.

His clutch bombs as a youngster on the Houston Rockets were the starting points.

He says his fondest memory is game five of the 2005 NBA Finals. Who could forget that rousing slam dunk and the out-of-bounds play for a three that sunk the hearts of thousands at the Palace of Auburn Hills?

A few things are certain. He was an odd competitor but a lovable one, and he garnered the respect of two Hall of Fame coaches.

Gregg Popovich usually rips apart or cuts players who don't try in the regular season, but Horry was different.

Even Tim Duncan quipped, "He just shows up for the playoffs."

Popovich likely marveled as we all did that a guy with such unspectacular numbers could have such a spectacular impact when it counted most.

In game two of the 2007 NBA Finals, Horry grabbed eight rebounds and blocked five shots. The best moment of the game? Horry went after a loose ball and instead knocked Popovich to the floor. Pop's response: "Good job, Robert."

After that 102-93 Spurs win, Popovich called Horry the night's "star."

Also memorable: sitting in the upper bowl at the then SBC Center in 2005 as the Spurs closed out the Detroit Pistons in a thrilling game seven. Horry knocked in 15 huge points. During both of his trips to the charity stripes, the crowd chanted his name.

"Horry, Horry, Horry, Horry!"

MVP chants are rampant during regular season games in any city where a superstar talent plays. How many players in NBA history have heard their name chanted so loudly in a game seven?

Horry's remarkable feat of reaching at least the second round in all of his 15 seasons will be hard to match. As will his seven championship rings.

Yes, he picked the right teams. He played with Hakeem Olajuwon, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O' Neal and Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.

The right teams also picked him because of what he could do when pressure required a moment of greatness.

While a seven-points-per-game scorer has no place in the Hall of Fame, he will always own a place in the heart of any fan who ever cheered one of his signature postseason performances.

Especially mine.

Dear Robert Horry, the NBA and playoffs will miss you.