Horford: Celtics players, coach, pitch were very attractive

Horford: Celtics players, coach, pitch were very attractive – The Providence Journal

WALTHAM, Mass. — Al Horford wasn’t necessarily looking to leave Atlanta.

The 30-year-old, four-time All-Star had been with the Hawks his entire professional life. He had helped lead Atlanta to the playoffs in each of his nine seasons in the NBA. Two years ago, he anchored the Hawks to 60 regular season wins and a trip to the Eastern Conference finals. This past spring, he was a key cog when they knocked the Celtics out of the first round of the playoffs in six games.

Yet, when the unrestricted free agent began his tour on July 1, he thought back to that playoff series in Boston. He thought about Boston’s youth, its amenability to coaching, the way the team kept picking itself off the canvas even when it appeared beaten, and the way the TD Garden crowd seemed to will the Celtics to victories in games when it became increasingly clear they might be overmatched.

He ultimately decided this was the place for him.

“It was going to take a lot for me to leave Atlanta,” he said Friday morning during a press conference to unofficially welcome him to Boston pending the finalization of his paperwork in the league office. “When I looked at Coach (Brad) Stevens, how he runs his offense, and the players that are here, and finally the pitch that was very powerful, that kind of sealed the deal for me.”

That pitch Friday night included Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, owners Stephen Pagliuca and Wyc Grousbeck, Stevens, as well as Jae Crowder, Kelly Olynyk, Marcus Smart and Isaiah Thomas. It left an impression — one Horford was never able to shake even as his former team desperately tried one last-gasp attempt to retain him the next day.

Early Saturday evening, as the Celtic contingent was on a plane leaving its meeting with free agent Kevin Durant on Long Island, he called Ainge’s cell phone and informed him he was coming to Boston.

“Looking at the potential here, and the capability of being with this team, really intrigued me,” he said. “It really gets me excited the more I think about it. It was a very hard to decision (leaving Atlanta), but (in the end) it was easy for me to end up choosing Boston.”

Horford is coming off a season in which he averaged 15.2 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, while hitting a career-high 88 3-pointers.

His career high for 3-pointers in a season before that was 11.

Page 2 of 3 – “His hard work and his adaptability to the way the game is played, in a lot of ways, has enhanced him even more,” Stevens said Friday. “By adding to what was probably one of the better perimeter shots in the league, and extending that range to being not only a reasonable 3-point shooter, but a good 3-point shooter, (shows) he is a guy who is now constantly thinking about adding to and perfecting that.”

The signing, when it becomes official, represents the first time in franchise history that Boston has successfully lured away an elite NBA free agent in his prime. While the Celtics came up short in the effort to land Durant the next day, the hope is that bringing in Horford will become a turning point in Boston’s recruitment of star talent around the league.

“I feel like this will open the door for many others free agents to consider (Boston),” Horford said. “This is a special place. I think people, if they’re open to it, will see what a special place it is.”

While the Horford signing makes the Celtics improved and more balanced, Ainge acknowledged on Friday that it does not, in of itself, make the team a legitimate conference title contender.

“We felt like we were rightfully the third seed in the Eastern Conference,” said Ainge, whose team was seeded fifth in conference playoffs after finishing in a four-way tie for third at 48-34. “The addition of Al makes us a better team, for sure, with his versatility, his experience, and his leadership that we’ve all talked about.

“But we’re not done. We still have work to do.”

Whether that work can be done this summer, or will have to wait until during the upcoming season or next offseason when the team could have another top-five draft pick (from the Brooklyn Nets) and a maximum-salary spot, is the question now facing the franchise. It’s one that may test the patience that has allowed it come as far as it has in the three years since dealing off Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Doc Rivers and Jason Terry, and building from a 25-win team to a 48-win, two-time playoff team now with a pair of returning All-Stars in Horford and Thomas.

“The phones are definitely ringing,” Grousbeck said. “Danny is talking to people. He has indicated our work is not yet done. But, I have to say, I feel good about this team right now. I feel good about where we are and how we can just develop these young players. We have a very young roster.