Is Robert Horry and the Spurs a "Dirty Team"?

By: Nick Lee

With the new series and freshly revived rivalry between the veteran Spurs and the emergence of the Lakers, there is still some buzz about a foul in the 3rd quarter of game 6 against the New Orleans Hornets.  In the days following the foul that saw David West face down grimacing in pain- the question that is being debated is:  Is Robert Horry a dirty player?  Let’s examine this topic by considering the questions below:

Does Robert Horry have a history of dirty plays:  In examining opinions that I have read on various sports sites and listening to the opinions of Sportswriters nationwide, I have for some odd reason found as many Phoenix fans upset about this than Hornets fans.  In his 15 years in the NBA Horry’s big shots have been from beyond the arc.  There is no question that his foul on Steve Nash a year ago was way over the line, although those “conspiracy” theorists who say that it was an “intentional plan of Greg Poppovich” forget that Horry hit big shots throughout the year and playoffs for the Spurs last year- and to suggest that Pop sent Horry in to intentionally take a cheap shot at Nash are ridiculous- you would send it some scrub to do it- you would want to have a Robert Horry in a game 7.  In fact Poppovich inserted him in the game as a starter in this past game 6 because of his veteran playoff experience.  Why would Horry wait until the 3rd quarter with his team running away with the game to do that- if that was his “assignment”?

Do the Spurs have a history of dirty players:  Plainly and simply yes.  Bruce Bowen has a history of being a dirty player and if you took an anonymous poll of the NBA- you would find Bruce near the top of the list.  Manu has a reputation of being a “flopper” and we know that Poppovich doesn’t always conduct himself in an “unpompous” manner when it comes to the media. Those things put together give the Spurs a reputation of being dirty. 

The play in question:  Those who say that Horry is “Cheap Shot” Bob point to the fact that he knew that David West had an injury and “purposely” hit him in the area of injury. That’s a tough call considering no one really knows what’s going on in Horry’s head.  Most certainly David West felt healthy enough to be in the post area which especially during the playoffs should be expected to be a contact oriented place.  The real question is about the play, not about the perpetrator of the play.  If you took Horry and any personal feelings about last year’s playoffs, etc. would that be considered a “dirty play?”  I mean if that was Tim Duncan instead of Horry would we say, that was a good fundamental hard playoff foul?  In watching the play over and over again- and especially watching it in real time- there didn’t appear to me to be anything dirty about it.  My only argument for it possibly being dirty was that Horry did not go over and try to see if West was Ok?  However, we also have known David West to be a trash-talker this playoffs, and you would have expected some kind of response or “retaliation” from the Hornets which you didn’t see.  The NBA most certainly did not call anything and you didn’t see anyone back up West by getting in Horry’s face.  You didn’t see any post-game response from the Hornets. 

I think that a lot of the “dirtiness” is based on last year’s Nash-incident.  People who paint Chris Paul as a “choir-boy” forget the incident where he hit Julius Hodge in the “family jewels”. 

The playoffs are meant to be physical and Horry is a savvy veteran who has been in the playoffs repeatedly and he plays like an old-school player.  To me the league has gone overboard with what is a flagrant foul and the players have helped that with some bad flopping and acting. 

I guess we’ll see in the future if West retaliates by talking some trash to Horry and the Spurs.  And we’ll see if Horry delivers another big shot—although with Horry in a game 7 it will be a late 4th quarter three pointer and not a physical injury.  Although the late Chick Hearn used to say of Horry’s 4th quarter heroics that those shots were daggers which would rip your heart out!