c'mon now...a lot of players have hit big shots, including Dame. Horry was just in a position to hit bigger shots on a larger stage. But it wasn't his talent that was primary in getting his team to that larger stage.
* in Houston, it was the talent of Hakeem, Mawell, Thorpe, Smith, and Drexler. (Horry averaged about 11 & 5 during Houston's 2 championships).
* And in LA it was Shaq, Kobe, Rice, Fisher (Horry averaged about 7.5 & 5 during the Lakers' threepeat and was part of a supporting group that had Rick Fox, Brian Shaw, and Ron Harper).
* and obviously, for the Spurs, it was the big-3 of Duncan, Parker and Ginobli. Horry was just one part of a supporting cast that included Bruce, Bowen, Brent Barry, Nazr Mohammed, and Oberto. He only averaged 5 & 4 when he collected his 7th ring.
Horry didn't have elite talent, just elite timing
that's not to say he didn't play important roles on those teams. But that's the point, he was just a role player, he was never the 3rd best and often not the 4th best player on those teams. Which was what I was getting at in the Dame vs Jrue debate. Granted, Jrue is a very high level role player and was clearly the 3rd best player on the Bucks title team. During the playoffs, Giannis averaged 30 -13 - 5 and Middleton averaged 24 - 8- 5, while Jrue was 17 - 6 - 9. For the Celtics, it may have been that White was the 3rd best player, and Jrue 4th best
whatshisname was arguing that Jrue had the type of talent integral to playoff success and Dame didn't. But Jrue had his first 11 seasons while swimming in the wakes of Giannis & Middleton & Tatum & Brown. He spent 7 years in New Orleans alongside AD; most of the time as the 2nd best player. Yet, in his first 11 seasons he appeared in 30 playoff games. Dame, in his first 9 seasons appeared in 61 playoff games; more than twice as many in 2 fewer seasons. (Apparently, Jrue's critical playoff talent didn't kick in until he was playing with 2 all-stars instead of 1). And we know around here that it was Dame's talent that carried Portland into the playoffs for for 8 straight seasons. When Dame was in his prime, he had CJ and Nurkic. Jrue had Giannis and Middleton; or Tatum and Brown
