Al Horford is a Boston Celtic now, and his acquisition will go down as one that’s no worse than second best in a summer that saw Kevin Durant’s defection to the Golden State Warriors. On his way out the door from the Atlanta Hawks, there were suggestions that the arrival of Dwight Howard and tepid enthusiasm from fans in Georgia were among the reasons Horford left for one of the league’s most storied franchises.
Horford wasn’t too happy to hear all that. “I was angry when I heard about that because I never felt that way,” Horford told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview posted on Monday. “I’ve been here a long time. I’ve actually gotten to know a lot of our fans, a lot of our season-ticket holders with the Hawks. They’ve always been great to me. I’ve always been very content and happy with the way they’ve treated me and my family.”
About Howard, he said, “I don’t have a problem with Dwight at all. I think that he is a great player and he has a lot of ability and a lot of potential. It has nothing to do with not wanting to play with Dwight. I don’t know if you remember but there was a time when I wanted to play power forward. With a guy like him, that would have been easier. It had nothing to do with Dwight. He’s a good guy.”
Whatever his reasoning, Horford in a bigger market, on TV across the country more often, is a win for basketball.
