Al Horford Might Be Pranking All Of Us With His Flinching At Free-Throw Rebounds

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Al Horford isn’t always recognized as a top-flight NBA big man, in part because he plays a brand of basketball that is anything but flashy. In fact, it is almost as if the Boston Celtics big man actively flies under the radar, even dating back to his days as a centerpiece for the Atlanta Hawks. In short, that makes his rebound flinching behavior all the more interesting.

While the Celtics are no longer actively involved in the NBA playoffs, the good folks at NBA TV’s The Starters took a glance at the bizarre trend of Horford seemingly being terrified to rebound during free throws.

This is, of course, a tongue-in-cheek representation to the point of humor, but it is certainly strange. The easy joke would be to point out that Horford, who is famous for his sub-par rebounding, wants to do anything except grab the ball after it hits the rim. Still, it isn’t as if Horford is thoroughly incapable of rebounding, and the fact that this only happens every couple of years makes it all the more intriguing.

After a postseason in which he shot 51.9 percent from three and averaged more than 15 points per game as a secondary offensive option for the Celtics, Al Horford may have begun to shed the (unfair) label that he is somehow a substandard playoff contributor. With that said, the bigger question is now what exactly is going through his head when he flinches in this fashion during run-of-the-mill free throw attempts.

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