Despite Getting Kicked Out for Danny Ainge Fiasco, Lakers Legend Confesses to Liking Phoenix for 1 Reason

Danny Ainge is a Boston Celtics legend, who is a three-time NBA Champion (2 as a player and 1 as an NBA Executive). He won his two NBA rings earlier on in his career with the legendary Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics. He earned his 3rd NBA ring for the Celtics during his tenure as the President of Basketball Operations (2003-2021). Despite all these accolades, Danny Ainge was popular for an entirely different reason as a player.

Ainge was known for throwing elbows and getting into physical fights during games. A 7x NBA champion talks about the Phoenix Suns and the time he got kicked out for a ‘Danny Ainge’ fiasco.

Robert Horry’s ‘Danny Ainge Fiasco’

In a recent “Big Shot Bob Podcast” episode, 7x NBA champion Robert Horry and his co-hosts talk about Kawhi Leonard getting ‘booed’ by the Spurs fans recently. Horry and the co-hosts discuss how Greg Popovich’s actions were unnecessary and that getting to ‘boo’ a player is part of the ‘NBA fan experience’. Robert Horry then mentions, “I got booed when I went back to Phoenix.” Horry laughs as he clarifies, “I got nothing against Phoenix..it’s just I didn’t like Danny Ainge. That’s just part of the city.”

Robert Horry played for the Phoenix Suns in 1996 when Danny Ainge was the head coach. Horry says in the podcast episode, “Phoenix is a good city…good place to play golf. And I don’t play golf… it’s a good city though.” The former Lakers star has had a long-standing history with Danny Ainge. When Ainge was the head coach for the Phoenix Suns, Robert Horry once threw a towel at Danny Ainge’s face mid-game. Horry was frustrated with Ainge’s decision to take him out of the final minutes of a regular season game. In later interviews, Horry talks about the toxic team politics and the ‘soft’ environment that existed in the Phoenix Suns organization at the time and blamed the coaching staff for it.

However, the Phoenix Suns fans completely roasted Robert Horry, and supported their head coach in the ‘towel’ controversy. Robert Horry then got traded to the Lakers in 1997, whom he ended up winning 3 NBA rings with. But why did Robert Horry throw the towel at Danny Ainge’s face over getting subbed out in a regular season game?

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The long-standing beef between Robert Horry and Danny Ainge

Robert Horry and Danny Ainge’s beef is the reason people say that recently retired NBA players should not become coaches. Robert Horry and Danny Ainge were rivals as players and played against each other in a heated 7-game playoff series for two years in a row! Danny Ainge was in the Phoenix Suns and Robert Horry was in his sophomore year with the Houston Rockets. When the Rockets faced the Suns in the second round of the 1994 NBA playoffs, Danny Ainge made a dirty play where he threw the ball in full force at Elli (a Rockets guard) on purpose. The Rockets went on to beat the Suns in the playoff series and ended up becoming the 1994 NBA champions as well.

The two teams again faced off against each other in the 1995 NBA Semi-Finals, where the Rockets made sure to ‘hard’ check Danny Ainge. Despite the Suns being up 3-1 in the series, the Houston Rockets made an incredible comeback to win the series 4-3 and advance to the NBA finals. The Rockets won game 7 of the series by one point (114-115).

The two NBA legends still have unresolved ‘beef’ between them and Robert Horry continues to be very vocal about his strong dislike for Danny Ainge.

What are your thoughts on the incident when Horry threw a towel on Danny Ainge’s face? Let us know in the comments below!

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