Philadelphia 76ers: Of course Al Horford willed Boston to a Game 1 win

Good news: The Eastern Conference has taken Game 1 of the 2022 NBA Finals. While that shouldn’t technically matter, as the Philadelphia 76ers have long since been eliminated from action, conventional wisdom would suggest that one would at least root for a team in the same conference as their favorite, assuming everything else is equal.

Factor in the shame the Warriors put on the City of Brotherly Love by moving to San Francisco a few years back – read: 1962 – and there’s little reason for a fan from Philly to root for Seth Curry’s brother and his cohorts… unless, of course, their opponent is the Boston Celtics.

Though Boston probably hates the Los Angeles Lakers a good bit more than their frequent Keystone State combatants, I mean, ESPN did make a multi-part 30-for-30 on the topic after all, for fans in Philly, the Celtics have a particular sort of long-standing disdain that stretches back generations.

So naturally, as fans of the Philadelphia 76ers cheer on Seth Curry’s brother in what will ultimately go down as one of the four-to-seven last games of the 2021-22 NBA season, of course the Boston Celtics would pull out an admittedly impressive win down the stretch. Of course ex-Brett Brown assistant Ime Udoka would turn in a coaching clinic versus Steve Kerr, and of course Al Horford would be the player who inexplicably pulled out the W, scoring 10 of Boston’s final 16 points on the way to a 120-108 win.

*sigh* and to think, the Philadelphia 76ers had to trade away a pick to get off of his contract.

Al Horford’s first in Boston is much better than with the Philadelphia 76ers.

When the Philadelphia 76ers traded Al Horford and a 2025 first round pick to the OKC Thunder for Danny Green, it was a deceptively consequential trade.

After a wasted season of bad on-court fits and even worse vibes, new GM Daryl Morey capitalized on the Los Angeles Lakers’ decision to trade Green to the Thunder for Dennis Schroder by swapping out Horford, who wasn’t worth the contract he earned, for a theoretically better-fitting player both for the team’s scheme and their overall championship goals.

On paper, the decision worked out fairly well. The starting lineup of Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Green, Tobias Harris, and Joel Embiid made a good bit more sense than any potential look with Horford – or Josh Richardson – still in the mix, and the Sixers were able to ride that lineup to the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

But inadvertently, the decision to trade Horford to OKC effectively made him available to Boston when their failed free agency addition, Kemba Walker, was potentially on the move and thus, gave Ime Udoka and company the perfect front court partner next to Robert Williams.

*sigh II* yeah, Horford played 761 minutes next to Williams during the 2021-22 regular season and the duo had a Net Rating of 13.2. Good for Boston, bad for the Sixers.

Whether tasked with protecting the paint in one of the more fascinating defensive looks you’ll see, blocking shots on the way to the basket, or simply spacing the field for the likes of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Horford has been the sort of high-end veteran role player the Celtics desperately needed to help ease out the early season tension and the sort of high-end veteran role player the Sixers could have used too.

*sigh III* it’s never fun to watch one team’s “trash” become another team’s treasure, especially when it cost a first round pick to get off of his contract and he ultimately benefitted an arch-rival.

With everything said and done, the Boston Celtics were able to turn Dennis Schroder, Moses Brown, and a second round pick into two first round picks, a second round pick, and the draft rights to Jaden McDaniels. That’s some serious value. But would you like to know what is even better value than that haul? Being three games away from an NBA Championship, which the Boston Celtic are thanks to former Philadelphia 76ers power forward Al Horford.