Big Shot Rob's thirst for Hollywood royalty
When you play for the Los Angeles Lakers, you aren't just an athlete; you are a god walking among mortals in the city of angels. But apparently, even seven-time NBA champions get left on "read" by the true queens of Tinseltown. Robert Horry, known worldwide as "Big Shot Rob" for his ice-cold veins in the clutch, recently spilled the tea on the one shot he bricked so hard it still haunts him decades later.
The target? None other than the sultry, explosive bombshell Salma Hayek. Back in the early 2000s, Hayek was the undisputed fantasy of every man with a pulse, fresh off her roles in Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn. Horry, riding high on Lakers fame, decided he wanted a piece of that action. In a shocking confession to former teammate Byron Scott, Horry admitted to practically begging team staff to hook him up.
Horry relentlessly harassed the Lakers' team chiropractor, Dr. Trish Dean, who happened to treat the A-list actress. It wasn't just a casual inquiry; it was a full-court press. He wanted an introduction, and he wasn't taking no for an answer. It is the kind of aggressive pursuit that would probably get you cancelled on Twitter today, but back then, it was just another Laker shooting his shot.
"I used to tease Dr. Trish all the time," Horry confessed, revealing the depths of his thirst. He was desperate to meet the Mexican icon, and he thought his collection of championship rings would be the ultimate aphrodisiac.
The phone call that changed everything
Just when Horry probably thought his pestering was going nowhere, his phone rang late one night. Unknown number. We all know the drill. Usually, it's a bill collector or a side chick causing drama, but this time, the voice on the other end sent shivers down the power forward's spine.
"Hey, Robert. How are you?" a sultry voice purred. Horry, clearly suffering from trust issues or perhaps just disbelief that his schemes actually worked, immediately assumed he was being pranked by his locker room buddies. "I’m like, ‘Who is this?’ I pick it up… I’m like, ‘Who’s playing on my f—king phone? Who’s this?’"
When the voice replied, "This is Salma Hayek," Horry nearly dropped the receiver. The audacity of questioning Salma Hayek! But once the shock wore off, the ego kicked in. They chatted for minutes—an eternity in the flirting game—and Hayek dropped the line every guy dreams of hearing: "We should get together sometime."
Imagine fumbling a call from prime Salma Hayek because you thought it was Shaq pranking you. Robert Horry is a legend but this is an L.
The invitation and the fatal mistake
Here is where the story goes from a dream scenario to a total train wreck. Hayek, playing the role of the charming seductress, invited Horry to the premiere of her new passion project, the biopic Frida. In Horry's mind, the confetti was already falling. He heard "come to my premiere" and translated it to "I want you to be my date on the red carpet."
"I’m like, ‘Are you asking me to be your date?’" Horry recalled asking, his confidence skyrocketing to dangerous levels. He was ready to suit up, flash the smile, and be the arm candy for the hottest woman on the planet.
But Hollywood is a cruel mistress, and timing is everything. Just as Horry was mentally picking out his tuxedo and imagining the headlines, Salma dropped a nuclear bomb on his romantic fantasies. She didn't just reject the "date" label; she passed the phone to the competition.
Enter the villain: Edward Norton
In a twist that would make a scripted drama jealous, Hayek cut the flirtation short with five words that shattered Horry's world: "Hold on. Edward wants to talk."
Yes, that Edward Norton. The serious, intense, method-acting boyfriend was right there in the apartment the whole time. While Horry was spitting game, The Incredible Hulk actor was likely listening in, ready to assert his dominance. Talk about a buzzkill. Horry was essentially friend-zoned via speakerphone by one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation.
"I’m like, ‘F—k,’ because she was dating Edward Norton at the time, right?" Horry admitted. The realization hit him like a Shaq elbow to the face. He wasn't the romantic lead in this movie; he was the third wheel. He was the "basketball friend."
Edward Norton intercepting the call is the ultimate boss move. 'Hold on, let me put my boyfriend on.' I would have hung up and changed my number immediately.
The most awkward red carpet in history
Most men would have licked their wounds and stayed home, avoiding the humiliation. But not Big Shot Rob. Whether it was morbid curiosity or just the refusal to give up, he actually went to the premiere. And this is where the night spiraled into a sweaty, uncomfortable nightmare that Horry still can't forget.
He found himself sitting right next to Hayek in the theater. But it wasn't just sitting; it was torture. Hayek arrived in a stunning pink gown with a slit so high it was practically a hazard. Horry describes the scene with the kind of vivid detail that suggests he has replayed it in his mind a thousand times.
"She has her legs crossed like this," Horry explained, painting a picture of a man fighting for his life against his own libido. "I’m sitting there… I’m looking at her leg." The proximity to greatness was intoxicating, but the screen was about to make things a million times worse.
The nude scene that broke him
Frida is an artistic masterpiece, but it is also famous for its raw, uninhibited depictions of the artist's life—including full frontal nudity. As fate would have it, Horry was sitting next to the real-life Salma Hayek while the on-screen Salma Hayek stripped down to absolutely nothing.
The tension in that theater row must have been thick enough to cut with a knife. Horry found himself in a "predicament"—a polite way of saying he was incredibly aroused and terrified at the same time. He was sandwiched between the real woman, her jealous boyfriend, and a giant screen displaying everything he couldn't have.
"Then up on the screen she’s butt naked," Horry recounted, the trauma still fresh in his voice. "I’m like, ‘Lord, y’all don’t put me in a bad predicament.’ I’m like, ‘Man, I don’t need to be sitting right here right now.’"
It is the ultimate "look away" moment. Do you stare at the screen and look like a creep? Do you stare at the floor and look guilty? Do you look at Edward Norton and risk a fistfight? Horry was in no-man's-land.
Sitting next to Salma Hayek while watching Salma Hayek naked is a level of psychological warfare no NBA training could prepare you for. Prayers up for Rob.
Better than Jack Nicholson?
Lakers players are used to the glitterati. They high-five Jack Nicholson courtside, party with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, and rub shoulders with Denzel Washington. It is part of the job description. But Horry made it crystal clear: none of those legends compare to the night he almost-but-not-quite dated Salma Hayek.
Despite the "weak sauce" ending to his romantic pursuit, Horry calls it the highlight of his Hollywood tenure. "I think that was the best. That would be the one for me. That was great," he said.
It speaks volumes that a man with seven championship rings values a moment of extreme sexual frustration over hanging out with Oscar winners. It is a testament to the power of Salma Hayek in the early 2000s—she could reduce a giant of the court to a stuttering mess just by existing.
The lingering question
Horry eventually moved on, and Hayek went on to marry billionaire François-Henri Pinault, putting her permanently out of the league of even the richest NBA stars. But one has to wonder—what if Edward Norton hadn't been in that apartment?
Did Horry actually have a shot? Or was he always destined to be the amusing athlete friend? The chemistry was there, the phone call happened, but the defense was just too strong. Edward Norton played the best defense on Robert Horry that anyone had seen since the '95 Finals.
We may never know what could have been, but we will always have the image of a sweating Robert Horry trying desperately not to look at the screen—or the woman next to him—while history unfolded in the buff. A true tragedy of Tinseltown.
