Who Made That Shot: Horry--or Luck?

The arc of the ball was clean and true, the shot fired off coolly at the buzzer--almost the kind of moment that every kid, every athlete dreams about owning in a playoff game.... But just as quickly as Lakers forward Robert Horry nailed the game-winning shot against the Sacramento Kings on Sunday--keeping his team’s playoff hopes alive--the moment was snatched away, the fantasy dismissed.

“That’s [a] lucky shot, that’s all,” sniffed the Kings’ Vlade Divac, who had accidentally tipped the ball toward Horry. “You don’t need skill in that situation. You throw it, [if] it goes in, it goes in.”

Trash talk or not, such comments from Divac and others have touched off a debate: Was it just luck? Or was it a typical shot from a low-key player who, time after time, rises to the occasion and delivers under a cocked gun?

The Lakers were one second away from a key loss in the playoffs when Horry grabbed the loose ball. With sixth-tenths of a second remaining, and forward Chris Webber charging, Horry swished the ball straight into the basket. The final score: Lakers, 100; Kings, 99.

At the very least, Horry’s three-pointer could prove to be pivotal in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals, should the Lakers manage to pull off a come-from-behind series victory. (Point guard Mike Bibby made his own cool game-winning jumper for the Kings in Sacramento on Tuesday, with 8.2 seconds left on the clock; his team now leads the series, 3-2, heading into Game 6 on Friday at Staples Center.) For now, anyway, Horry’s 25-foot basket is the talk of the series, one of those suspended moments in time that would force even Divac to concede: “This is the way basketball should be, a last-second shot.”

In the world of sports, fairly or unfairly, the measure of a champion is partly defined by the clutch performance, how someone delivers when the stakes are the highest. ESPN’s Web site recently ranked the all-time best clutch performers in sports--topped by Michael Jordan, Joe Montana and John Elway--and the “worst choke artists of all time”--led by golfer Greg Norman, the California Angels and University of Houston’s men’s basketball team.

During the regular season, Horry, 31, is a background player next to Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and Rick Fox, but in the playoffs, he is becoming known for making huge shots in the biggest of games.

After Game 4 at Staples Center, sports writers cited Horry’s growing reputation as Mr. Clutch. The Washington Times reported that Horry’s jumper was “magical ... Horry has developed an almost mythical reputation for hitting big shots, many of them three-pointers at crucial times in games.”

Yes, the Lakers got a lucky break when the ball ended up in Horry’s hands, said David Yukelson, a sports psychologist at Pennsylvania State University. Then, he noted, Horry’s mental training kicked in.

He didn’t panic, didn’t rush, didn’t lose his concentration. “There was nothing lucky about it,” said Yukelson, president of the Assn. for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology. “The ball came to him, and he executed without thinking. He was in the moment and delivered.... It was pure rhythm, pure skill ... with confidence, with relaxation, he’s, ‘I get it. I [nail] it. It’s in. Let’s go party.’”

Later, Horry would tell reporters that he didn’t have any pressure on him, that the spotlight is on the superstars, so he is loose and ready when opportunity comes his way.

On the other hand, Yukelson said, a top athlete such as Michelle Kwan can tighten in defining moments, such as the Winter Olympics figure-skating competition. Kwan, who has won a U.S. record of seven medals at the world championships, is ranked No. 6 on ESPN’s list of biggest chokers in sports. In Salt Lake City, she won a bronze medal; upstart U.S. skater Sarah Hughes took home the gold. “You get the little hotshot who comes in with nothing to lose and hits [huge jumps], but somebody who’s on top is maybe thinking too much, putting too much pressure on themselves,” Yukelson said.

Horry’s three-pointer is being mislabeled, both as a “clutch shot” and a “lucky shot,” said sports psychologist Chris Carr at the Methodist Sports Medicine Center in Indianapolis. In a way, said Carr, his last-minute basket was routine, a kind of reflexive action that comes after intense practice and visualization of crunch moments. “In that level of performance, an athlete will describe it as a subconscious phenomenon, like everything was in slow motion,” said Carr, who works with the Kansas City Royals and the U.S. men’s Alpine ski team. “Time is kind of distorted ... an athlete who has a good mental routine really dictates their subconscious to perform when the cues are right.”

Later, Horry would say he didn’t have time to think; his instincts took over. He planted his feet, spun the ball so he could grip it by the seams, jumped and fired, “cool as a cucumber ... like every other shot, every other day,” noted Bart Lerner, who teaches sports psychology at the Arizona School of Professional Psychology. Had the clock not ticked away, “maybe, if there was five or six seconds, maybe he would think too much,” Lerner speculated. “‘Should I pass or take a shot?’ Then possibly Chris Webber could have blocked his shot or been a lot closer ... some people will kind of tighten up and think too much, and then the ball goes off the rim.”

Though the media spun Horry’s buzzer shot as just short of magical--”It was pure Hollywood ... right out of the movies,” an AP sports writer crowed--the Laker forward simply was coming through as a professional, said Paul Salitsky, a lecturer in sports psychology at UC Davis. “The truth of it is, it’s an everyday occurrence,” said Salitsky, who has researched the Kings’ team performance. “There are clutch and pressure situations, and you get the ball to the person who can handle it. They practice this. This is their domain, with that kind of noise, that kind of [game] on the line. It’s not a negative to [feel pressure]. It’s their gold medal moment.”

Not to mention a sports fan’s dream, said Salitsky, a Kings fan. “I want to see competition. I want to see teams battling down to the end so somebody does have a setup like that ... that’s what it should be about.”