Al Horford: Boston Celtics can 'win a championship'

http://www.espn.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4724048/al-horford-on-boston-it-feels-right-to-be-here



Al Horford: Boston Celtics can 'win a championship'


Al Horford after first practice with Celtics after nine seasons in Atlanta: "I feel good. It feels right to be here." (0:39)


6:58 PM BST


Chris Forsberg
ESPN Staff Writer



WALTHAM, Mass. -- Jae Crowder was certain the Boston Celtics had landed their first free-agent prize in nearly two decades, and teammate Isaiah Thomas wasn't arguing with him.

The two players were huddled in an Atlanta hotel room after the Celtics delivered their late-night sales pitch to Al Horford at the start of free agency in July. The only question seemed to be whether they'd get a commitment quickly enough to sneak Horford onto the private plane waiting to take Boston's contingent to the Hamptons to meet with Kevin Durant.

Horford navigated meetings with other teams before agreeing to a four-year, $113 million max contract with the Celtics. News arrived after the Celtics had departed their meeting with Durant, though Crowder and Thomas had been confident that Horford would choose Boston, but the official thumbs up from one of free agency's top prizes was still met with celebration throughout the organization.

"When we were recruiting him, I was like, 'It's sunny all the time!'"
Isaiah Thomas, on lying to Al Horford about Boston's weather
On Tuesday morning, Horford, 30, participated in his first formal practice with the Celtics, navigating a breezy walkthrough that kicked off the team's first two-a-day session of training camp. After spending his entire nine-year NBA career with the Atlanta Hawks, Horford was asked about stepping outside his comfort zone.

"It's definitely a weird feeling, but I feel good," Horford said. "It feels right to be here.

"I took a chance on coming here, because I believe in the type of guys we have here in the organization and the potential there is. So that's why I'm here, and I have a lot of respect for a lot of these players."

How exactly did the Celtics convince Horford to leave his only NBA home? What was it about Boston that gave Horford the confidence to come to the Celtics?

It was essentially a nine-year courtship that started with Horford's curiosity about the 17 championship banners that dangle above the TD Garden floor and culminated with Horford fascinated by Boston's on-court product under the guidance of head coach Brad Stevens.

So when Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, co-owners Wyc Grousbeck and Steve Pagliuca, Stevens, and players Thomas, Crowder and Kelly Olynyk visited Horford on July 1, their sales pitch didn't require much more glitz than Stevens showing Horford how seamlessly he'd integrate into their system.

"'Our style of play fits how you play' -- we stressed that [to Horford]," Crowder said. "We were just stressing like, 'You don't have to change anything in your game. Bring whatever you brought to Atlanta. Bring that with you, and you're going to be fine.'"

After the workout Tuesday, Crowder couldn't suppress a smile when asked what it was like to finally see Horford on the court with Boston's young core. Celtics players are hoping Horford can push this team to the next level after consecutive first-round playoff exits.

"It's no coincidence that, wherever he goes, he wins," Crowder said. "He's a winner. It's good to see him on our side."

It's fair to wonder if Horford would have ended up in green if not for an improbable four-way tie in the middle of last year's Eastern Conference standings. In what many Celtics fans perceived as a bad break, Boston slipped to the fifth seed and had to travel to Atlanta in the opening round. The Hawks won the series in six games, but that meant Horford and the Hawks played against Boston 10 times last season.

"Even though I was in Atlanta last year and we beat the Celtics in the playoffs, I was very impressed with how hard the guys played and how good the team could be under Coach Stevens and just what I saw from the group," Horford said.

Thomas hinted that Horford started asking him about what it's like to play in Boston when the two crossed paths at All-Star weekend in Toronto. Once Horford signed, Thomas joked that he deserved a recruiter's fee for gushing about Boston.

And lying about the weather.

"When we were recruiting him, I was like, 'It's sunny all the time!'" Thomas joked.



Al Horford participated in his first practice with the Celtics on Tuesday. Elise Amendola/AP


Considering the money offered was essentially the same -- though reports have suggested the Hawks came in with slightly less than a full five-year max offer -- Horford was banking on Boston's young core having a brighter future than the Atlanta team he knew so well.

"It just really intrigued me, and when the free-agency process came around, at the beginning I would say I was very comfortable with Atlanta, but, as the time kept going on and I met with the Celtics, it just became real to me," Horford said.

"Looking at my career at this point, I'm going into my 10th year and want to be able to be a part of something special and win a championship. With the type of guys that we have here, we have that possibility, and that's something I wanted to be a part of."

Even as the Celtics are assigned lofty expectations, including pushing 50 wins and challenging the defending champ Cleveland Cavaliers in the East, the Horford signing has flown quietly under the radar, even in Boston. Maybe that's because of the concurrent pursuit of Durant, which ended with disappointment when he joined the Golden State Warriors.

Horford is such a seamless fit for Boston that it's hard to imagine him not making this team better. He'll slide into the starting spot vacated by Jared Sullinger after the team elected to let him walk away in restricted free agency and sign with division rival Toronto Raptors.

Horford, with his floor-stretching abilities and passing talents, should thrive in Stevens' offense, where play funnels through the bigs. Defensively, Celtics players believe they now have the necessary back-line talent to lead the league in defensive rating after finishing fourth last season.

Ainge agrees that Horford fits well with the core he has constructed.

"I love his experience, his character, and his versatility," Ainge said. "Very talented player, but, as much as anything, he's just been very consistent over his career -- shooting the ball, playing multiple positions. And I think he's a guy that fits in with our system, where we have the big guys handling the ball a lot."

Horford will earn $26.5 million this season, which is $14.5 million more than the next-highest-paid Celtics player, Amir Johnson at $12 million, and nearly $20 million more than what Thomas, an All-Star for the first time last season, will earn. The salary disparity won't be an issue if Horford helps the Celtics take another step forward.

"He deserved that contract," Thomas said. "It’s a lot of money. If we go out for team dinners he can pay for everything. Around Christmas, we're looking forward to really nice gifts."

Turning more serious, Thomas added, "He’s going to help us in so many ways. These last couple of weeks [before training camp] I was able to work out with him and play 5-on-5. He's so unselfish.

"He knows how to make the right play out of the pick-and-roll. He can help us in a lot of ways, not just offensively but defensively. He's someone we needed. I'm excited to be going with him."

Horford said after Tuesday's practice that he's more relieved than nervous to get started, especially after relocating his family to Boston. He doesn't seem overwhelmed by the pressures inherent with his big contract or the rising expectations around the Celtics after his arrival.

"The guys had a really good year last year here," Horford said. "We have some great leaders here already, and I just want to be able to come in and help our team grow, just get acclimated as fast as I can and help us be a better team. That's basically what I'm here to do. I want us to grow as a team and be better."

The lingering question is whether Horford is enough to push Boston into the next tier of contenders. He is no stranger to the difficulty in getting out of the East, especially after LeBron James and the Cavaliers swept the Hawks out of each of the past two postseasons, including the conference finals two seasons ago.


One of the perks of signing a long-term deal in Boston is the surplus of future draft picks, such as the Nets' first-round picks in 2017 and 2018, and the salary-cap flexibility to keep its young core together and remain contenders in free agency.

For his part, Horford is focused on the 2016-17 season and the ultimate quest to add another one of the championship banners that have intrigued him for the past decade.

"We all know the situation of the flexibility and all the future draft picks and all that stuff," Horford said. "That was there. But, for me, just the guys that we have here, the group that's here, is what I felt good about with Coach Stevens, playing under his system.

"I feel like one of [Stevens'] strengths is passing, and I feel like the bigs in this offense handle the ball a lot, and that's something that excited me, just the thought of putting those things together and then being in a place like this. It's a special place."



Bob


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Billy Donovan thought Al Horford was better than Joachim Noah coming out of University of Florida, and he was right. More durable too. That reminds me, Billy Donovan is one helluva coach, similar to our Brad Stevens in ability to connect with young players. I wish them both well.