After winning his first NBA title at 38 years old, Al Horford plans to return to the Boston Celtics next season, Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck said Tuesday.
“Al is coming back for next year. That’s what I’ve been told. Age 38, which is unbelievable,” Grousbeck said on the “The Greg Hill Show” following the Celtics’ championship-clinching Game 5 win Monday over the Dallas Mavericks.
“We’ve got some guys who are getting up there a little bit, but basically we’re a young team,” Grousbeck said. “Most of our players are 30 or younger and that is bad news for everybody else, hopefully.”
Horford would return for his 18th season in the league and seventh with the Celtics, which achieved a record 18th NBA championship with Monday’s victory.
“Ironically, we won in ’08 over Al’s team,” Grousbeck said. “The Hawks took us to seven in the first round. So, we were part of his drought, and now he came home to us. He loves it here. He and his family love it here. He couldn’t be happier. We are also happy.”
Horford, who also made stops with the Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers and the Oklahoma City Thunder in his career, averaged 9.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists in the latest postseason. He started starting 15 of 19 playoff games with Kristaps Porziņģis missing time due to injuries in the playoffs.
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“My whole thing has always been this: as long as I feel good physically,” Horford said in February about how much longer he hopes to play. “I don’t want to feel limited. I don’t want to be not myself out there.
“So, I don’t want to put a limit on it. And that’s the one thing that I saw from Tom (Brady), one of the things I took from him that I thought was great. Just listening to interviews with him and things like that, he never put a limit on when he was going to play, and I don’t want to limit myself with that.”
Importance of Horford returning to Celtics
At some point, Horford will become less important to the Celtics’ success. That point hasn’t come yet.
A sixth man for most of the season, the big man started most of the playoff run with Porziņģis dealing with multiple injuries. During the Finals, the Celtics asked Horford to switch consistently against Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. They needed Horford to space the floor against Dallas’ rim protection. They used him for 30 minutes per game, and it would have been more if the first unit hadn’t been pulled early during a blowout Game 4 loss.
Furthermore, Horford remains one of the few centers who can play alongside other big men, defend some of the league’s best guards in space and regularly knock down outside shots. Even when he doesn’t score much, he’s vital to how the Celtics play at both ends of the court. It’s a big deal for them that he plans to keep playing, especially with Porziņģis looking at offseason surgery. — Jay King, Celtics staff writer
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(Photo: Adam Glanzman / Getty Images)