Celtics

Al Horford is an NBA champion. Finally.

The championship that eluded the esteemed Horford is at last his, after 17 seasons and 186 playoff games.

By Chad Finn

June 18, 2024

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Sometimes, when longstanding dreams become fulfilled and everything has proven possible, the right words to capture the spirit of the thing can be elusive.

And sometimes, in the best of times, they’re right there waiting.

Tell me, Celtics fans, how does this sound this morning?

Al Horford. NBA champion. Boston Celtics.

Maybe the words themselves aren’t quite poetic. But what they stand for is the sweetest kind of poetic justice.

The championship that eluded the esteemed Horford is at last his, after 17 seasons and 186 playoff games. He’s deserved it for a long time. It’s no wonder that in the moments after it became a reality, Horford was still processing the experience.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. I’m going through the emotions right now, but I don’t feel like it’s over,” said Horford, goggles on his forehead and a grin on his face, after the Celtics clinched their 18th championship with a 106-88 victory over the Mavericks Monday night at TD Garden, wrapping up the NBA Finals in a tidy five games. “The confetti [is falling], everything is going on, but it just hasn’t hit me yet.”

When a team wins a championship — especially one that has overcome so much, from unfulfilled previous quests (this was their sixth trip to the conference finals and second to the Finals in eight years) to amplified media narratives ringing in their players’ ears — it’s human nature for each of the victors to be happiest for, well, themselves.

But Horford might be the runner-up on every last one of his teammates’ ballots.

Jayson Tatum, who sits next to Horford on the team plane, has often called him the best teammate he’s ever had.  One got the sense after the Celtics’ clinching victory it is not an outlier of an opinion.

“Knowing the type of person that Al is, knowing the leader that he is, even off the court, the father that he is, just the all-around great person and great human, I’d run through a brick wall for him,” said Jrue Holiday. “I’m so happy that he got one.”

Said Derrick White: “Man, nobody deserves it more. Hell of a career. So underrated. Just does everything for us. Doesn’t ask for anything. I’m so happy for him, and I’m glad I could be a part of it.”

And one more testimonial: “You know, everybody loves him,” said Kristaps Porzingis. “And he gave everything to this team. He deserves it more than anybody.”

The championship is the Celtics’ first since 2008. That journey included a seven-game victory over rookie Horford’s Atlanta Hawks in the first round.

It would be understandable if, in his younger days, he thought championships would be easier to come by. He won back-to-back national titles in college at Florida.

When he came to the Celtics in July 2016 as the first prime-of-his-career player to sign in Boston as a free agent, one of the deciding factors was the opportunity to win in a market where winning is not a quest, but a demand.

Horford smiled Monday night recalling his meeting during free agency, and how Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck’s 2008 championship ring caught his and agent Jason Glushon’s attention.

“We were both sitting in the meeting,” said Horford, “and we just kept looking at this enormous ring in Wyc’s hand. And after the meeting we were like, ‘Did you notice that?’

“I’ll never forget what Danny Ainge told me in that meeting. He said, ‘You can win championships in many places, but there’s nothing like winning in Boston. Nothing like winning as a Celtic.’

“And that stuck with me from that meeting. I was like, man, I’m trying to be great, and that’s what I want.”

Horford’s route to becoming a champion in Boston was not linear. After the bitter end to the 2019 season, when Kyrie Irving checked out on his teammates long before the season’s final buzzer and the Celtics folded up in a conference semifinals loss to the Bucks, he signed as a free agent with the rival 76ers.

After an ill-fitting season there and another in limbo with Oklahoma City, Brad Stevens brought Horford back to Boston in his first move as the Celtics’ president of basketball operations.

Even with the layovers elsewhere, Horford has been the quintessential Celtic, someone for Tatum and Jaylen Brown to lean on, a still-tough defender and steady 3-point shooter who plays a decade younger than his age.

His performance Monday night was a fitting sample. He scored 9 points in 32 minutes, and all of them were meaningful, from knocking down the Celtics’ first 3-pointer in the first quarter to a sneaky important driving layup with just over 3 minutes left in the first half and the Mavericks attempting to rally, to another 3-pointer off a Jaylen Brown feed with just under 10 minutes left in the third quarter to build the lead to 75-50.

He also corralled nine rebounds and was a team-best plus-23 in the first half. Yet what will be remembered best is not anything he did on the court, but his departure from the game with 2 minutes and 2 seconds remaining, the confirmation that the party was about to begin.

There are conversations to be had, now and mostly later, about Horford’s place in history. The championship feels like the missing piece on his Hall of Fame resume, which includes those two Gator titles, five NBA All-Star appearances, and All-Defense and All-NBA nods.

The metric win-shares says Horford’s most similar statistical comps include Robert Parish, Bob Lanier, and Wes Unseld, all easy enshrinees in Springfield. (We will ignore Bill Laimbeer’s place on this list, for reasons that require no further explanation. The Chief can take care of him.)

I will also hear the argument, and nod in agreement, that Horford’s No. 42 should someday dangle from the Garden rafters.

How can you not get caught up in the mood and magic of the moment? After enduring so many excellent seasons that fell achingly short of a dream fulfilled, the Celtics came through in exhilarating, validating fashion.

Of course, it takes time for that to set in, for the wonderful reality to stop feeling surreal.

As he stepped off the podium following the game, Horford gripped his son Ean’s hand and made his way out of the interview room.

“I can’t believe it,” he said quietly.

He will soon enough.

Say it with me: Al Horford. NBA champion. Boston Celtics.

He’ll be hearing that beautiful string of words for the rest of his life.

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