Things might look a lot differently for the Boston Celtics had Al Horford not opted out of his contract in 2019.
The team had just lost Kyrie Irving, and the Philadelphia 76ers offered him a massive four-year, $109 million contract to poach him from their Eastern Conference rival. Unfortunately for Horford, the grass wasn’t greener in Philly, and the team added Kemba Walker and defeated the 76ers in the NBA Playoffs at the bubble the following season.
Since then, the failed experiment resulted in the 76ers sending the five-time NBA All-Star to the Oklahoma City Thunder on draft night. And as of Saturday, the Thunder announced a plan to shut Horford down the rest of the year to save him for an offseason trade.
After everything, though, many Celtics fans would welcome Horford back with open arms. And it looks like his family supports that.
“We’d love to see him back in Boston,” Anna Horford, his younger sister, tweeted Saturday in the aftermath of news breaking.
Horford is set to make $27.5 million, $27 million and $26.5 million over the next three seasons — including this season — suggesting he might not want to be bought out. At the same time, though, it won’t be easy for the Thunder to unload his contract on another team, which they reportedly plan to do.
But if the numbers work out, we’d love to see this reunion.
