Al Horford: Warriors were the obvious option if I left Celtics
The Horford admitted that this summer was a strange process, but he was happy to have overcome it and be with the Warriors.
San Francisco – For Al Horford, the decision to leave the Boston Celtics was difficult after spending seven of his last nine seasons there, including the conquest of the NBA title in 2024, the first of his 18 years of experience in the League.
But while Horford contemplated his future, this preseason, two things were easy: he knew he would not retire and knew that, if he had to leave the Celtics, joining the Golden State Warriors was the most logical.
“It is a great opportunity to compete and win at a high level,” said Horford on Wednesday in his presentation with the media at the Chase Center. When I think of the Warriors, I think of Steph (Curry), Draymond (Green), Steve Kerr and seeing Jimmy Butler here. What he did in the second half of last season after the transfer and how they are playing.
It was not easy for me to leave Boston, but if there was a place, it was this, and it happened and gave the opportunity, so I took advantage of it without hesitation.
The idea that Horford was out of Boston seemed, at best, crazy when the regular season ended in April. He was completely installed in Boston, where he was loved by the fans and all in the organization, his family was a constant presence in the team, and the only question was how much more Horford would continue his career worthy of the Hall of Fame.
But, like so many other things for the Celtics, everything changed when Jayson Tatum broke the Achilles tendon in the fourth semifinal match of the East Conference against the New York Knicks. With low tatum during the vast majority of matches, if not all matches of the 2025-26 season, Boston ended up regardless The past spring arrived as one of the favorites to win the title.
With the Celtics readjusting their positions, the possibility that Horford leaves Boston became a real possibility. And, when he did, the adaptation to the Warriors, where he should naturally fit both defensively as an offensive spacer and connector playing with Curry, Green and Butler in Kerr’s reading and reaction system, made sense to both parties.
“It is essential not only to have a 5 space, but it is not any 5 space, it is Al Horford,” Kerr said Wednesday. “Rebounds, he defends, he is intelligent, good pin … Just seeing it today, you can see … how well it adapts, how well you feel. You can play with Draymond, open the court as 5, you can play with Trayce (Jackson-Davis), and Trayce can be the defender and play with two giants. You can also play as 5, and we can have an alignment of 5 outs. that he adapts to any alignment they make him a greatly valuable player from the beginning.
Those same qualities were the ones that made him such a versatile player with the Celtics in recent years, where he remained a key piece of the Boston squad even when he reached 30 years. However, in a gesture of his age and the wear of his body, the Celtics constantly supervised Horford’s minutes and made sure they did not play in consecutive games.
Both Horford and Kerr spinning to the theme of whether Horford would lose consecutive games this season, stating that the medical team would work with Horford in that sense from now on.
The fact that Horford, who accepted a two -year contract for the average exception of taxpayers of $ 5.7 million with a player option for next season, had his presentation press conference on Wednesday, on his second day of preseason, it was due to the fact that his signing, along with that of several others, had to wait for Jonathan’s restricted free agency. Kumina will reach a conclusion.
On Tuesday night, Kumina and the Warriors agreed a two -year contract, which raided the way for Horford, De’anthony Melton (who also spoke on Wednesday) and others closed their contracts.
Horford admitted that this summer was a strange process, but he was happy to have overcome it and be with the Warriors.
“Without a doubt, it was a very strange preseason, simply waiting and waiting to see what was happening, to see what happened,” said Horford. “So I concentrated completely on training, preparing and making sure to be in the best state for when the season began.”
