No hard feelings toward Horry

SAN ANTONIO – So Robert Horry steps into an elevator in San Diego this summer and immediately notices a married couple sizing him up.

"You're tall," says the woman, "and you look familiar."

Horry smiles and looks at the woman's husband, who, apparently more versed in NBA personnel than his wife, grins back.

"Do you play basketball?" asks the woman.

"Yes."

"Do you play pro basketball?"

"Yes."

"Who do you play for?"

"The San Antonio Spurs."

"What's your name?"

"Robert Horry."

"That sounds familiar. … Wait, oh. … that's right. You beat us."

The husband laughs then introduces himself to Horry. Turns out he's a minority owner of the Phoenix Suns.

"I told him, 'No hard feelings?' " Horry said, recalling the story this week. "He said, 'No. Congratulations. You're from the old school. I respect your game.' "

Well, that makes one person in Phoenix.

It's safe to say Robert Horry's fan club isn't drawing too many members from the 602 area code these days. Phoenix residents will at least be happy to know Horry's rear was firmly planted on the bench in the closing minutes of the Suns' 100-95 victory over the Spurs Monday in San Antonio.

That wasn't the case seven months ago. Then, with the Suns trying to bleed the final seconds of their Game 4 victory against the Spurs, Horry knocked Steve Nash into the scorer's table, triggering a scrum that resulted in the suspension of not only Horry, but also Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw.

Stoudemire and Diaw were reprimanded by NBA commissioner David Stern for leaving the bench during the altercation, a ruling that didn't have, Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni said at the time, "a shred of fairness or common sense." Forced to take the court without two of their top players, the Suns narrowly lost Game 5 before the Spurs closed out the second-round series two nights later in San Antonio.

The Suns returned to the AT&T Center Monday for the first time since the loss, and the seven months away seemed to have softened some emotions. Stoudemire said he was disappointed to watch the Spurs in the Western Conference finals last season, but claimed to hold "no grudges." Nash said he has "nothing against Robert at all."

"Everybody can have their opinion on what happened, but at the end of the day you still have to go out there and play," Suns forward Shawn Marion said. "It's our job. Regardless what happened last year, that's in the past. You can't turn back the hands of time."

Few people know that better than Horry. He turned 37 in August and is in the last year of his contract with the Spurs. He hasn't ruled out putting off retirement another year, but traded in his No. 5 jersey this season for 25 because that's what he wore when he began his career in Houston.

"I figure if I wear 25," Horry said, "I might be able to capture some of that youth when I used to be able to dunk on everybody."

Horry isn't expecting that to happen anytime soon. Only recently has he even begun to fully gather his legs under him. He spent the first 16 games on the inactive list after a trying preseason that saw him fret away most of his time in a Houston hospital hoping his daughter, Ashlyn, would survive a bout with pneumonia.

Born without part of her first chromosome, Ashlyn has a weakened immune system that makes her susceptible to infection. She has been in and out of hospitals for most of her 14 years.

"This time it was harder," Horry said. "We just had to wait it out."

Ashlyn's perseverance, Horry has long said, has taught him that his life need not be measured by the outcome of a single game. That attitude has helped make him one of the game's greatest clutch performers as well as the owner of seven championship rings.

"I just look at it like you're going out there and having fun," Horry said. "If you throw me the ball, I shoot it and it goes in, hooray. If I miss it, oh well. Hopefully it's not a Game 7 and you live to fight another day."

More often than not, Horry has lived to fight. Game 3 of the 1995 NBA Finals. Game 3 of the 2001 NBA Finals. Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference finals. Game 5 of the 2005 NBA Finals. Coast to coast, rim to rim, Horry's fearless shooting has broken the hearts of opponents. Few players have been jeered in more arenas than Horry, so much so that he has come to embrace the role of visiting villain.

"When you go into Sacramento and get booed, it's fun because you know you did your job," Horry said. "It's fun when you go into Philly and get booed because you know you did your job."

Phoenix, however, is different. Horry has had a poor relationship with the Suns and their fans ever since he spent the first half of the 1996-97 season in Phoenix after the Rockets traded him and Sam Cassell there for Charles Barkley. Horry never wanted to leave Houston and he never wanted Danny Ainge as his coach. His tumultuous stay in the desert culminated with him tossing a towel at Ainge as he sat on the bench.

"Usually you have some good times when you're (with a team)," Horry said. "When I was in Phoenix there were no good times. It was a bad situation coming in there. They lied about Sam and I saying we demanded money. I know talking to Sam he didn't want money because he didn't want to stay in Phoenix. I know I didn't want money because I didn't want to stay in Phoenix. I just wanted my contract to end.

"I had the animosity against Danny Ainge from playing against him – he hit (former Rockets guard) Mario (Elie) in the face with the ball. It was a lot of stuff that boiled up. I made the mistake of throwing a towel in Danny's face and after that I have been booed.

"After the hard foul on Steve Nash, I'm even more reviled."

So much so that when Horry and the Spurs returned to Phoenix for Game 5, a bomb threat was phoned into their hotel. Horry said he received two death threats on his room's voice mail.

"It didn't rattle me," Horry said. "You expect that from cowards."

Horry's only regret about the incident was that he didn't get over to Nash quick enough to take a charge. Had he fell to the ground with Nash he figures no one would have paid much attention to the foul. By continuing to stand, however, Horry appeared to measure Nash for the hit before turning away ruthlessly and walking toward the bench.

Horry doesn't think Stoudemire and Diaw merited suspensions and he thinks his own punishment should have been cut short by a game. He's still bitter toward the league for the $60,000 he lost in pay because he didn't know the amount was going to be that large until it was missing from the playoff check he received after the season.

"That's the NBA for you," Horry said. "They will screw you when they can."

The Suns and their fans, of course, have every right to feel like they received the worst end of Horry's hit. And while there were no hip checks on Monday, Horry again crumpled Nash to the floor by sandwiching him against Bruce Bowen with a hard foul in the third quarter. Horry would go on to finish with four rebounds, one steal and a technical for jawing at the officials too long. He took just one shot, but Spurs coach Gregg Popovich thought enough of Horry's basketball acumen to start him in the second half, just as he did four nights earlier in Los Angeles against the Lakers.

"It seems some nights he's not going to shoot the ball because he doesn't really feel it and some nights he's letting it fly," Popovich said. "So I never really know about that. The thing I do know is he's going to try to block shots, he's going to defend, he's going to make some intelligent plays you can't coach.

"He's going to make plays that help you win playoff games. I know I can always count on that."

The playoffs are still four months away. Four months for Horry to strengthen his legs and sharpen his shot. Between now and then, he's got two trips to make to Phoenix, the first coming on Jan. 31.

"You know me," Horry said, smiling. "I'm already looking forward to that."