Al Horford is the team dad. Stand in the Celtics locker room and you’ll see collections of wild shoes in most lockers while he has basically eight pairs of Paul George PG 6’s in black or white in his. He’s Mr. Responsible, the kind of guy who dishes out investment advice, tells guys to cut out the fast food and eat smarter, and who shakes his head at bravado and mutters ‘these kids nowadays’ with a smirk under his breath.
But Horford is a little different this season. He’s letting loose a little bit more. When the Celtics whip off a run, he’ll let the other team know they need a timeout by making a big, exaggerated “T” on his way to the bench. He’s not exactly Kevin Garnett out there, trying to melt opponents’ faces with a steady stream of expletives, but Horford is letting the trash talk flow a little bit more.
“In the past I might have held back a little bit, try to stay more composed and things like that,” Horford told Boston Sports Journal after the team’s Sunday practice ahead of Game 1 of their semifinal series against the Philadelphia 76ers. “I feel like now I want to kind of let it out, let my emotions out at times when I feel like I need it.”
He let it out against the Atlanta Hawks late in Game 6, drilling a crucial 3-pointer and turning around to say something to someone in the Hawks bench area. After the game, he thanked that person for getting him going, dropping an all-time quote for Horford: “Some people you can talk trash to. You talk trash to me, it's probably not good for you.”
Whoa.
“(He’s) just a different animal, man,” Marcus Smart told BSJ. “You forget because he's so nice and so cool and so calm that he’s still a human being. He still has emotions. He still gets hyped up. That's one of the reasons why he's still in his game doing what he's doing.”
What Horford is still doing in the NBA might be a bit surprising to Sixers fans who saw him struggle in their system. He didn’t fit well next to Joel Embiid. He didn’t work next to Ben Simmons. However the Sixers tried to use him, it didn’t seem to work. The traded him away to OKC only to see him land back in Boston and evolve into a critical piece for a championship contender.
As much as Horford is starting to talk more on the court, he’s not taking the bait when given a chance to send Philly a message.
“I'm just excited,” he said. “It's just exciting to be in these positions, to be in this opportunity. It’s the playoffs. Tensions are gonna be high. So I'm just looking forward to it.”
It’s obvious Horford is a competitor. It’s hard to make it in the NBA if you’re not, and it’s especially tough to have the career Horford has without having a little extra drive. But people shouldn’t mistake Horford’s demeanor for weakness.
“If it takes somebody talking trash to him, we've seen that,” Smart told BSJ. “We've seen it last year against Milwaukee. Giannis (Antetokounmpo) dunks and then stares him down. You see Al tell him 'okay,' and then he comes right back down and dunks on him, and lets out that primal scream, catches Giannis in the face going down, and then takes over that game. So we definitely love seeing that Al.”
As much as Horford is letting his feelings flow more often, it’s not exactly reaching Smart levels of outward emotion. If it’s not someone trash talking him that's getting him going, it’s someone making a huge play, especially on the defensive end.
“(Jayson Tatum) flying in blocking a shot. Jaylen (Brown), the Dejounte Murray drive in the fourth quarter and him coming in (to block it),” Horford told BSJ. “Any defensive play that my guys make -- when Smarty dives on the floor, like that just kind of gets me going. Even if I don't express it. That stuff fuels me.”
There's one player in particular, though, that fuels him more often than not. You see, Al Horford is a pretty big Robert Williams fan.
FLEX ON 'EM, ROB pic.twitter.com/zyHIXoXqn2
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) April 23, 2023
“When Rob is playing at that level, when he's finishing around the basket, when he's blocking shots … when I see him playing at that level and with the energy that he's playing, he builds our team,” Horford said. “I think he's probably the guy that when he makes plays, he probably excites me the most.”
Horford is still the team dad, though. And as we all know, dads aren’t always thrilled with what the kids are doing. Yes, Horford is letting his feelings be known more in the big moments on the floor, but he’s willing to let the guys know his feelings when things aren’t going well, too.
“In the locker room, on the court, on the bench,” Smart said. “He gets to talking in his native tongue. I can't understand anything sometimes. That's how you know he's mad at you, when he gets to talking real fast and can't understand him, he's probably saying some stuff that you probably shouldn't say out loud. … he's not afraid to call us out on our BS and we're BSing and he's done it multiple times.”
Horford laughed and copped to slipping into Spanish every once in a while in particularly frustrating moments.
“We're asking a lot of guys to do different things. And I know it's not easy and I do try to be patient,” Horford said. “But there are times you got to step in, you got to say something. It can happen every now and then. And when that happens, I feel like I get their attention.”
Horford is getting a lot of attention these days, from his teammates and his opponents. His evolution as a player has turned him into a little bit of a different player. Instead of a business-like banger around the low block, Horford is letting shots, and his mouth, fly a lot more often than we’re used to. He’s tapping into a fountain of youth that has him acting a little bit like his younger days.
“I think early in my career, if you notice, I was doing a lot of that -- emotional -- in college a little bit too at times,” Horford told BSJ. “And then I just kind of went through, you know, just gonna lock in, do the things that I needed to do, showed some emotion. But I just feel like now, I don't know, I feel more comfortable. I don't know if it's the guys who bring that out of me, different aspects of it, but really just making the most, taking advantage of these opportunities that I'm getting and really embracing the moments.”
So are his teammates.
“When you see Al hyped, when you see Al got that mean look on his face, you feed off that,” Smart said. “You kind of have that same audacity to be like, you know what? If Al can do it, I can do it as well.”
