Al Horford respects Tommy Heinsohn's opinion that 'he's not a great player'

http://espn.go.com/blog/nba/post/_/id/17982/al-horford-respects-tommy-heinsohns-opinion-that-hes-not-a-great-player



Al Horford respects Tommy Heinsohn's opinion that 'he's not a great player'





Al Horford scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in Atlanta's Game 1 win over Boston, then had to answer questions about Celtics broadcaster Tommy Heinsohn saying "he's not a great player." AP Photo/David Goldman



2:22 AM ET



Ohm Youngmisuk
ESPN Staff Writer



ATLANTA -- Al Horford respects Celtics great and analyst Tommy Heinsohn’s opinion, even if that opinion is that the Celtics can beat the Hawks because Horford is “not a great player.”

Heinsohn, who basically bleeds green for his love of the Celtics, says if the Celtics get a man on Horford, the Hawks’ All-Star big man will have difficulty scoring.

“I didn’t see it, but that’s his opinion, you gotta respect it,” Horford said on Monday after Hawks practice when told of what Heinsohn said. “I do [respect his opinion]. That’s his opinion and that’s how he feels.”

While on Comcast SportsNet New England after the Hawks edged Boston 102-101 in Game 1 of their first-round series on Saturday, Heinsohn said Horford might be overrated.

“The fact that [the Celtics] turned it around shows what kind of heart this basketball team has,” Heinsohn said of Boston erasing a 19-point first-half deficit, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “... The additional encouraging part is if they can go out and stay aggressive at both ends of the floor, they can beat this team because Horford, as much as you think he’s a great player, he’s not a great player. Get a man on him and he has trouble scoring.”

Horford, a four-time All-Star center, had 24 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks against the Celtics in Game 1.

“Oh, wow, I’m sure Al is going to come out and prove something,” teammate Kent Bazemore said when told what Heinsohn believes. “You know Al’s a great player and he’s extended his range. He can shoot it now, he can protect the rim and blocks shots and he’s a great leader. I could go on all day about all the accolades he has. Al’s a great teammate.

“There’s always someone that’s going to say a guy’s not a good player. [Even] Jesus Christ had haters. What can you say?”

Horford was involved in trade rumors before the deadline and Boston was linked to the center’s name. Surely Heinsohn would reconsider what he thinks if Horford were in green and white.

For now, Horford is focused on beating the Celtics and not what Heinsohn may think about his game.

“I’ve been in the league a long time,” Horford said. “I know I have to focus on my team and this is the playoffs, we’re in a great position and we have a great opportunity, so we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”



bob
MY NOTE:  For Pete's Sake, Tommy, SHUT UP!!  You'll either piss Horford off, which we don't need right now, or he won't come to Boston next year and he would definitely be an upgrade at his position for us.

As far as "not being a great player" goes, Horford is a 4x All-Star.  I don't know how many times you have to be named to the All-Star team by the coaches before you are considered 'great' but 4x sure suggests he is a real good player.  He scored 24 points and 12 rebounds.  Tommy said he scored them because nobody guarded him?  Our players had lots of open shots and missed them.  Maybe hitting your shots in a system that gets you open shots is all you need to do.


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Horford is a good player, in his/this era he was able to make the all star team 4 times. Is he a HoF player? No, he wouldn't make that many all star teams in the 80's. Even though they have different games, is he as good as a Tom Chambers was? I don't think so.

I'm sure Heinsohn's opinion would change if Horford wore a Celtics uniform. That's just Tommy being Tommy. He probably thought it was a throwaway line in the middle of a bunch of other stuff he was saying, but in our current media age, a throwaway line by a color analyst can become a headline.

Heinsohn is correct -- Horford is not among the elite offensive players in the game who can regularly go on a hot streak even when guarded well, but you can probably count the number of players who can do that on one hand. It probably would've helped if he'd given proper context to his statement, something like, "Horford had a great game, 24 and 12, and anybody would take that. He's a really good player, but most of those were open shots, and if you get a man on him, he has trouble scoring. You gotta make it tough on the guy."

In the end, this means nothing. The winner of the series will be determined by how well the players play and the coaches coach, not because of something Heinsohn said.

Or Tommy could have said, "Horford is a great player when Sully is guarding him."

worcester wrote:Or Tommy could have said, "Horford is a great player when Sully is guarding him."

Yeah, that!

gyso wrote:

worcester wrote:Or Tommy could have said, "Horford is a great player when Sully is guarding him."

Yeah, that!

That's just cold

I guess you could say that Horford is unguardable when sully is in the general vicinity.

dboss

I definitely agree with Tommy on this one.
Horford is a very good player. But not anywhere close to a great player.
He's a 15 and 7 player on a team that has never made any noise in the playoffs.
I know he will be one of the 2 top tier free agent centers this summer, but I would not be thrilled to pay a 30 year old pretty good center $80-90m over 4 years.
To me, Whiteside is the prize this summer at the center position.