How did ePlay name its flagship mobile game - Big Shot Basketball?

How did ePlay Digital come up with the name for its flagship Pokémon Go style mobile game? The game was first referred to internally by the ePlay and Mobovivo teams by its secret-code-named title - Pokesports.

The augmented reality sports game is a sports homage to one of the most popular mobile game ever - Pokémon Go. The team decided that blending its sport game engine with a location-based game and augmented reality to allow players to meet players - gamers to meet NBA players through augmented reality.

ePlay CEO, Trevor Doerksen, met 7-time NBA champ Robert Horry in Los Angeles in 2017. Pokesports, still in early development, was based on MLB baseball at the time. Ray Brown, a long-time collaborator of both Horry and Doerksen, was clearly in the Pokesports should be based on basketball fan club. Brown brought the trio together for breakfast in Burbank. Pictured below is Robert Horry coaching L.A.'s Big Shot Basketball team.

Pokesports did not become Big Shot until months later. To understand how Big Shot got its name is to understand how Robert Horry became Big Shot Bob. Horry became Big Shot Bob during his 4-years and 2 championships with the Houston Rockets.

"Robert Horry only played four seasons with the Houston Rockets, he was a key part of both championships, which created the legend of “Big Shot Bob.During the 1995 Western Conference Finals, the Houston Rockets faced off against the San Antonio Spurs, who were the top seed in the Western Conference. In the first game of the series, the Rockets found themselves down 92-93 with 6.5 seconds left in the game. Robert Horry had been struggling during the game, as he was 0-for-4 at that point in the game. Despite this, the ball ended up in the hands of Horry and he nailed the game-winning shot, which gave the Rockets a 94-93 victory. This proved Horry had ice in his veins as he was able to seal the game despite this being his only make of the game, thus creating the legend of Big Shot Bob." - Speciality Scoop

In September 2017, on a Starbucks patio off Beverly Glen Boulevard and Mulholland Dr. sports broadcaster Lindsay McCormick, ePlay CEO Trevor Doerksen, and film producer Ray Brown decided what is obvious - Pokesports would become Big Shot. Six months later, Big Shot would have its logo and in August 2018, ePlay released the beta version of Big Shot for the Apple App Store. Big Shot beta tested with friends and family of the L.A. Big Shot Basketball team throughout the 2018/19 NBA season and will officially launch in L.A. and Toronto during season-openers in both cities.