When joining the Warriors, the Horford can hold on to the opportunity of another NBA title

The presence of Al Horford will be surprised in Boston.

He will feel in Golden State, where Horford intends to sign a several year contract with the Warriors, leaving the Celtics for the second time in their historical history, according to Shams Charania de ESPN.

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Jayson Tatum called Horford “one of the best teammates I’ve had at any level,” and Jaylen Brown called him “a real life legend and hero.” You will not find anyone in the Celtics organization that you do not agree.

“If he asked everyone,” said the president of Basketball Operations of the Celtics, Brad Stevens, Yahoo Sports last January, “if you take all the joy that each of us experiences winning (the championship) last year, I think we all say a part of that joy, if not a large part in my eyes, it went to the”.

That was months ago, when Horford and everyone around him felt that he would end his career in Boston, since the Celtics championship window was open. At 39, Horford wanted to start every season he had left with him with the opportunity to win a title, and Defensor Celtics champion, with Tatum and Brown directly on his cousins, were positioned to see Horford during the end of his career.

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“I just want to be here,” Horford told Yahoo Sports, so his desire to retire in Boston.

Similarly, “as long as Horford wants to play,” Stevens said at that time: “We want it here.”

And the Celtics wanted him to stay. He is a soothing presence in the locker room, and remains a player of a player. He averaged 9 points (42/36/90 shooting divisions), 6.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.5 blocks and robberies combined in 27.7 minutes per game last season, its 18th in the NBA. But its impact has never been on statistics. He is a winner who “is not doing anything to take the team,” said Stevens.

(Get more news from Warriors: Golden State Team Feed)

More specifically: he is doing everything possible to contribute to the team. He extends the floor. Attack the closures. He even publishes sometimes. He protects the edge. He defends in space. He does everything, really.

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Now it will do everything in Golden State, where both sides of the ball require their level of basketball knowledge. There is a lot in the Warriors, who have the veterans Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green. What sweet rotations will produce their decades of ring. If only they can be healthy at their advanced ages.

In Golden State, at least Horford can hold on to an opportunity, even an exterior, on another ring.

Everything changed in Boston when Tatum broke his right Achilles tendon in game 4 of the semifinals of the Eastern Conference. Gone was the opportunity to become the first repeated NBA champion since 2018. Gone was the Horford championship window, at least for now, and now is all that is almost 40 years old.

Instead, looking at Boston on the face the second apron of the NBA, a punitive salary stop construction that finally cost the Celtics Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis. They could have discovered a way to stay under the second apron and retain Horford for next season, but Sam Hauser may have cost him, and for what purpose? Certainly does not turn off Horford’s incessant thirst for another championship.

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Boston’s Horford departure is more a statement on the inability of Celtics to win a title this season than their willingness to keep it. Do not rule out another return to Boston, either, once Tatum returns to health, since the Celtics reopened their championship window in 2027 and beyond.

The Horford is not age. You never know when you will finally leave it, but when you do, it will be when you no longer feel that you can contribute to winning the same way. This is not that moment.