The Robert Horry-Danny Ainge beef is what happens when your rival becomes your coach
in the mid 90s Danny Ainge and Robert Horry played for rival Western Conference contenders two years in a row their teams battled through heated back and forth seven-game playoff series then a single season after that Ange became ori’s coach and their rivalry was water under the bridge just kidding there was no water there was no Bridge there was only beef ancient ori’s dislike for one another is rooted in rival teams and long playoff series but from those roots beef grew and blossomed because of the kind of player Danny Ainge was let’s get to know him
age was extremely athletic he played professional baseball before joining the NBA he was a good shooter clutch a role player who helped the Celtics win titles in 84 and 86 but perhaps he was best known for being a jerk Eep through elbows he complained to refs with an expressive and coincidentally hateable face he got into fights often starting them like he did here in 1983 when he tackled Center Tree Rollins we can’t see what’s happening in here but Ange ended up needing five stitches in his finger because tree Rollins bit him but within a few
years of that fight everyone just assumed Ainge was the one who had bitten Rollins his label as a dirty player superseded facts now don’t
more relevant to this beef look at the sun’s team he joined at the end of his career Charles Barkley Kevin Johnson Dan Marley Three All-Stars in 93 his first year with Phoenix they went to the finals Ainge was 34 years old and came off the bench but saw big minutes contributed and he provided his signature Spark the Suns didn’t win the finals but 94 looked promising for them it also looked promising for the Houston Rockets Robert ory’s team now of course they weren’t known as Robert ory’s team 94 was ori’s sophomore season he was a
starter developing into a reliable scorer under the mentorship of rockets vets at least one of whom probably held a grudge against age because as you recall Ainge tackled him mid-game and then got his fingers too close to Rollins’s mouth the rockets and Sons met in the second round of the 94 playoffs after Houston blue leads to lose the first two games game three got a little beefy it didn’t hit Ori V Ainge directly but the events of game 3 provided the table setting for our future beef first Mario Ellie earned an And1 off Ange and
celebrated near range’s face later with Houston up big at the end of the game Hakeem Olajuwon threw down a huge dunk and he and Ellie congratulated themselves Ange perhaps taking offense at the second round of showboating responded that is a former professional baseball player winding up and pelting Ellie in the face he then dodged the ball to keep possession heads up play Inge claimed it was an accident but nobody bought that especially not the Rockets but as Ellie explained it’s not like they could start a fight without jeopardizing their season so they found a myriad
of other ways to get revenge on age first they spent the next game getting a little rough with Danny as Ori revealed on his podcast in 2021. all we tried to do which is hurt him he would come off screens and we were just like we were like nailing him right then Elijah won talked a little poop in the Press not just calling age dirty but a duplicitous person who might be on a path to hell this feels threatening right next they ended the sun season and went on to win the finals okay those last
two they likely didn’t do just despite Danny but despite was surely an added bonus the following year rockets and Sons again met in the second round the attitude in Arizona as expressed by age was that the Rockets shouldn’t have won last year and they won’t win this year the Suns went up three games to one and got a little cockier which made it all the more embarrassing when the Rockets came back and forced the series to seven games in game seven Ainge was on fire he had a couple clutch shots twice giving his team a
one point lead in the final minutes but in the final seconds Ellie hit a corner three to break the tie and apparently last year’s headshot hadn’t spoiled his pension for celebrating Ainge was out clutched the Rockets won the series and the next one and the finals again Ange retired the beef at this point well first of all seems over Houston wins Ange ages out of contention and also it’s very much a team oriented beef the Rockets versus age it only affected Ori because he was on the Rockets but ori’s young this was his first and
only team he was a major component of this team not just a starting role player But A Difference Maker he hit this game-winner in the 95 Western Conference finals and this game sealer in the 95 finals oh Orange the Rockets were his identity so he took things personally the team’s beef was his beef which years later he talked about at Great Lengths I hated Danny Ames and then ancient Ori found their paths smashing back into one another in the summer of 96 just one year into his retirement the sun’s hired Angel’s assistant coach a few
months later the Rockets dissatisfied with not three-peating traded four players including Ori to the Suns now they could have put their past behind them and started Anew but seems everything was a little too raw for that according to Ori the first thing Ainge said to him upon his arrival in Phoenix was I threw the ball at Ellie’s face on purpose and thus we get another more refined serving of beef once the season got underway the Suns totally sucked or he thought it was because of the way coaches ran practices as he said on his podcast
in 2020. the culture I was was not not good the day was soft they didn’t know how to practice hard now he’s saying this well after the fact at the time already didn’t tell the press or coaches practices were soft but he wasn’t totally silent either after an 18-point loss to Chicago the Suns held a practice in which they were focusing on offense a frustrated Ori questioned why they weren’t focusing on defense and as Ori tells it age then turned to him and said you’re the worst defensive player on the team never mind that the
previous year Ori was taught 25 in steals and blocks when the Suns hit 0-8 the head coach resigned and someone who pretty openly disliked Robert Ori became head coach but you can guess who one of Angel’s first moves demote Ori from the starting lineup this might seem incredibly Petty but Ori was actually playing badly in Phoenix he couldn’t find a shot take him out of the starting lineup seemed more like a basketball decision than a personal decision oh and just curious what was the first game already didn’t get to start oh his first game in
Houston since he was traded away all right maybe there was some pettiness going on as the season continued Ori saw his minutes dwindle and he didn’t shoot any better but December 26th a late Christmas miracle the sun’s traded away three starters for Jason Kidd which meant Ori was bumped back up to a starting spot and the team said they believed in him even Ainge had something nice to say along with something negative Ori started the next five games but he didn’t see his minutes increase and wait why’d he only start five games well let’s take
a look at what happened in the fourth quarter of that fifth game with 10 minutes and 30 seconds left and the sun’s up one or he checked into the game all right nothing bad there within three minutes he got called for offensive goaltending and then badly missed a three he was only one for four the entire game with 712 left he was taken out not an ideal situation but not unreasonable either right wrong says Robert Horry and saying stuff wasn’t quite enough cause Ori threw a towel in his coach’s face from pretty close this is
gonna be bad for Robert Ory yeah after the game Ori told the media he apologized to his team and age he also said Ange took some of the blame which age adamantly denied the coach got a little passive aggressive in the Press but mostly tried to downplay the incident a few days later he admitted the whole thing was embarrassing here he was trying to start a career as a coach and his players didn’t even respect him but the people of Arizona had no problem sticking by their coach and absolutely roasting Ori he was suspended for
two games the sun’s president wished it was longer but the player’s Union captain there were of course other ways to keep Ori from donning a son’s uniform ever again without Ori in the latter half of the season the sun’s improved dramatically this was more likely due to Jason Kidd’s Edition than ori’s subtraction but nonetheless the tile throw became emblematic of how far the team had come it was the low point from which they rebounded actually framed the towel and hung it in his office when Ainge retired from coaching a few years later the towel incident
was remembered as an example of what a great guy Ange was how Dory fare after insubordination and a hasty trade to the Lakers well the first time he played in Phoenix again he was booed he told reporters he’d try not to think about his time with the sons because it was such a bad memory making it easier to forget he went on to win three championships in a row with the Lakers Big Shot Bob re-emerged during those title runs and it seemed big petulant Bob who couldn’t shoot was dead and buried back in Phoenix as
a free agent in 2003 he signed with the Spurs for millions and millions of dollars the Spurs wanted him for a Sharp Shooting but also because of his good attitude he was selfless a hard worker a winner seems nobody spent time thinking about his days in Phoenix oh Eddie won two more championships with the Spurs and hit a game-winner in the 05 finals throwing a towel at Danny Ainge ended up giving Robert Ori the best life possible the guy has more rings than Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and lots of other all-time greats in 2022
he said throwing the towel was the best business decision he ever made he’s joking around but also it’s true Robert already won this beef I mean neither guy fared badly Ange got to be the victim the good guy for once in his career in the past even when someone bit him he didn’t get to be the victim and sure Ori had to have a miserable half season and his friend got pelted but he got to throw a towel at someone he hated leave a bad team join and contribute to a dynasty which gave him a
nice little reputation to join and contribute to another Dynasty somebody get a cake mold in the shape of a crown pack it full of ground beef bake it at 350 for 20 minutes and give it to Robert Ory thank you very much for watching I got some feedback that 350 degrees 20 minutes might not be enough for a structurally sound beef Crown but I’m not a chef check out these other videos please subscribe and for secret base I’m Clara Morris good night and good game
