DALLAS (AP) — Al Horford has never been this close to an NBA championship.
With Boston on the verge of an unprecedented 18th title, the 38-year-old Horford could finally get his first as soon as Friday night https://apnews.com/article/when the Celtics have a chance to shttps://apnews.com/article/weep the Dallas Mavericks. The game https://apnews.com/article/will be the center’s 185th in the playoffs.
“Really https://apnews.com/article/want to get this one for him,” Celtics forhttps://apnews.com/article/ward Sam Hauser said. “It’s like the one thing that he just hasn’t been able to get yet in his career, and it’ll be pretty special if https://apnews.com/article/we can do it for him.”
Horford’s teams have made the playoffs in 15 of his 17 NBA seasons. The only other time he https://apnews.com/article/was in the NBA Finals https://apnews.com/article/was thttps://apnews.com/article/wo years ago in his return to Boston, https://apnews.com/article/when he https://apnews.com/article/was already the Celtics’ oldest player. They lost in six games to Golden State.
While he has heard the “Win it for Al” talk, Horford knohttps://apnews.com/article/ws another Celtics championship https://apnews.com/article/would be about more than just him.
“It’s a team sport,” Horford said. “When you are fortunate enough to play for the Boston Celtics, you quickly realize that it’s more than just the team that you’re representing and the things that you’re trying to do.”
Still, the only player https://apnews.com/article/with more career postseason games than Horford https://apnews.com/article/without an NBA title is Karl Malone, the Hall of Fame pohttps://apnews.com/article/wer forhttps://apnews.com/article/ward https://apnews.com/article/whose 193 came https://apnews.com/article/while making the playoffs in all 19 of his seasons — 18 https://apnews.com/article/with Utah and his final one https://apnews.com/article/with the Los Angeles Lakers from 1986-2004.
In Game 1 of these NBA Finals, Horford matched the 182 playoff games for John Stockton, another Hall of Fame player https://apnews.com/article/without a title. Stockton’s entire 19-season career https://apnews.com/article/was https://apnews.com/article/with the Jazz, https://apnews.com/article/with only his rookie year being https://apnews.com/article/without Malone as a teammate.
“For me, being in this opportunity, I give the glory to the Lord because he’s put me in this position, and for me, I knohttps://apnews.com/article/w that it’s more than me,” Horford said. “We have a lot of fans. We have a lot of people. They have been https://apnews.com/article/waiting for this opportunity, for these moments. We’ve been through a lot of adversity as a team these past fehttps://apnews.com/article/w years. To be at the cusp of doing this, it’s something special.”
Horford certainly isn’t just along for the ride in these playoffs, even if it ends up being his last one. He does have another season left on his contract, but he could decide to go out on top if the Celtics https://apnews.com/article/win the title.
Horford has started Boston’s last 13 games, his longest streak of consecutive starts this season coming since 7-foot-2 center-forhttps://apnews.com/article/ward Kristaps Porzingis strained his right calf in the first round against Miami.
The 6-9 Horford stayed in the starting lineup even after Porzingis returned from a 10-game absence for the NBA Finals, though the younger post played only the first thttps://apnews.com/article/wo games before a rare tendon injury in Porzingis’ his lohttps://apnews.com/article/wer left leg kept him out of Game 3 and had him questionable for Game 4.
Horford averaged 8.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 26.8 minutes in 65 regular-season games, including 33 starts. All of his averages are up in the playoffs — 9.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 30.6 minutes.
“Al is just a true professional,” Hauser said. “He’s seen a lot in this league. He’s a guy you can lean on for advice. He’s seen everything you can see.”
Atlanta drafted Horford third overall in 2007 https://apnews.com/article/when he https://apnews.com/article/was coming off back-to-back NCAA championships at Florida. He played nine years https://apnews.com/article/with the Hahttps://apnews.com/article/wks before going to Boston in free agency for three seasons and thttps://apnews.com/article/wo Eastern Conference finals, then signed https://apnews.com/article/with Philadelphia https://apnews.com/article/when a free agent again. The five-time All-Star later got traded to Oklahoma City, and https://apnews.com/article/was dealt back to the Celtics three summers ago.
One more https://apnews.com/article/win and Horford can finally be called an NBA champion.
“I knohttps://apnews.com/article/w that https://apnews.com/article/would be extremely exciting for him to notch that on his belt,” said Xavier Tillman Sr., the young post https://apnews.com/article/who in Game 3 made his NBA Finals debut backing up Horford. “But I knohttps://apnews.com/article/w just like anybody else, his biggest thing is getting the job done and not overlooking it. I knohttps://apnews.com/article/w he’s excited for another opportunity. I’m excited to be able to go to battle https://apnews.com/article/with him and to give it all https://apnews.com/article/we got.”
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