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Tag Archive - Al Horford

Let’s Get Irrationally Angry About: Al Horford’s Shoulder Injury

January 12, 2012 in by with 1 Comment

Photo from Bob.Fornal via Flickr

Atlanta Hawks All-Star center Al Horford will miss at least three months with a shoulder injury, a major blow to a playoff contender in the Eastern Conference.

The team announced Thursday that Horford tore his left pectoral muscle in the first quarter of Wednesday night’s game at Indiana. The injury will likely require surgery, stunning a team that has made the playoffs four years in a row and is off to a solid start with wins over Miami and Chicago in the early going.

via Al Horford of Atlanta Hawks out 3-4 months with shoulder injury – ESPN.

The world has become a cold, dark place today.

Al Horford was the thing. He was the one thing. A pit of darkness, despair and isolation basketball lives in the depths of the Phillips Arena, rearing its ugly head 82 nights, plus playoffs, every year. In the form of a Mike Bibby or a Willie Green, a 20 second Joe Johnson dribble-fest or a Josh Smith tease, it was always there, ready to suck the life out of us. On a Tuesday night against the Nets, or in the middle of May against the Bulls, it was and still is awful.

And Al Horford was here to protect us. They tried to stop him. They wouldn’t pass him the ball, and they’d let him defend bigger players, and yet he was there. Knocking down that baseline 20 footer. Hedging on that pick and roll.

He won’t be doing that anymore, this season. Enjoy Zaza Pachulia.

If you think this is harsh, don’t. I love Jeff Teague, I do. Josh Smith is one of the most fascinating basketball players to exist in my lifetime, a trainwreck wrapped in an angelic presence marinated in nutjob sauce sprinkled with world-class athleticism tied together by a headband. Joe Johnson is acceptable, I guess, and Ivan Johnson is the new “I CAN’T BELIEVE HE’S AN NBA PLAYER I LOVE HIM SO MUCH LET’S TYPE HIS NAME ALL THE TIME” dude. And we respect each and every one of them, what they do on basketball courts, what they give us as fans.

We also hate watching it. We didn’t hate watching Al Horford. We loved watching Al Horford.

Stupid lockout.

NBA All-Star Weekend Day 0 And 1 Thoughts

February 13, 2010 in by with 0 Comments

The following are reflections on Thursday and Friday from Dallas, Texas for All-Star Weekend. Let’s go in chronological order, shall we?

  • By some stroke of divine providence, I was able to make it to Dallas. The flight before and after mine was canceled due to the record 24-hour snowfall in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  Mine was only slightly delayed, and touched down without any problems. I like to think this was my karmic reward for always donating to save homeless pets at PetsMart and the fact that Vince Carter went Nova last week.
  • Having lived in Texas four years, I cannot stress enough how big of a deal this storm was. If a few flakes fall? GRAB ALL THE SUPPLIES YOU CAN AND IMMEDIATELY HEAD TO YOUR BOMB SHELTER! With six inches of snow? Jesus, I’m surprised they didn’t just call off LIFE ITSELF.
  • I know many people’s weekends were ruined by the weather, but I will say this. Landing late lead to this little escapade. After getting my rental car, I had to make it from DFW to downtown Dallas in less than an hour during rush hour, in the worst snow storm in the history of the city. I am stunned, stunned I did not have to get out of the vehicle to beat someone to death with my man-bag. (Yes, I have a man-bag. It is not a purse. I don’t have lip balm in it. I carry that in my pocket. Not really. … Or so you think!)
  • The credentials office closes at 6PM. It is 5:55PM and I am at a complete stop on the highway… 300 feet from my exit. I can see it. I can smell the perfume, printer toner, and wariness towards bloggers I’m so close. I was so frustrated from the drive that I was tempted to just abandon the vehicle at the side of the road and walk it. Good thing I didn’t, since being dead would have greatly impacted my ability to cover this weekend’s events.
  • But I made it. With about four seconds to spare. I was actually technically late, but the good people in NBA PR were still there and kindly provided my credential.
  • Which was important, because I had arranged to stay with a copy editor friend in Fort Worth, instead of my hotel like on Friday and Saturday. Without a credential, I would have nowhere to go in a city I’m not familiar with that was rapidly shutting down due to road conditions. Which would have meant I would have been at a bar for six hours before attempting to drive to Fort Worth. Not ideal. There wasn’t even anyone I could go hang out with, since all the rest of the media was even more delayed than I was. Luckily it all worked out for the best. I still went to the bar.
  • Rookie-Sophomore practice was interesting because of who hung out. Mayo and Morrow got into a HORSE competition during shootaround. Yes, my heart almost exploded at the awesomeness. Morrow was draining left-handed threes. Watching them match one another was pretty nifty. Mayo’s going to end up as one of the truly great shooters of his time, and I say that not just as a Grizzlies fan. His devotion to repetition in form is what makes a great shooter, and he’s got it. Morrow seemed to really take the weekend in stride. That’s the best part about Rooks-Sophs, is they’re all pretty happy to be here.
  • Mayo, Beasley, and Mayo were all hanging out, just chillaxin, which seemed like an odd mix.
  • Beasley ____blocked me on an interview with Mayo. He grabbed a mic, and busted in on my interview to start asking Mayo questions. He asked me “Oh, I’m sorry, am I interrupting?” as if the entire point of this thing wasn’t interviews. But what am I going to say? “Yes, Michael Beasley, you are interrupting. Chill out, he’ll be with you in a minute?” Then he wandered over to interview Craig Sager who was in a purple suit. You know, like you do.
  • Kevin Love predicted a 37 point win for the sophomores. FAIL.
  • The opulence of the event is pretty overwhelming up close. The nicest hotels, draped in expensive signage, crazy posse members, the whole shebang. It is ridiculously over the top, and that’s before we get to the MCs.
  • Media Availability is like some bizarre mixture of cattle feeding time and a circus. I tried really hard to come up with a word other than circus, but there really isn’t one. The cliche is incredibly apt. There’s lots of goofy people with cameras dancing around, and everyone’s gawking at players like they’re freaks. Which, you know, being incredibly tall and long and athletic, they kind of are.
  • Almost got ran over by Dirk walking to his table. That was fun, in a terrifying way.
  • It’s stunning to me that so many people are there to ask questions which are completely and stunningly banal, and they ask them over and over, to only five people. There are seventy people around LeBron, and Gerald Wallace is just hanging out in a corner with five people around him. UNDERSTANDING-QUALITY-STORIES-FAIL.
  • Zach Randolph was confused at why people were talking about this being his “comeback year,” “a rebirth year,” “a rejuvenation year.” He kept responding to questions like “Um, I’ve been doing this the whole time, my numbers are the same, it’s just the situation that’s different.” He also talked about New York clearing space for LeBron, even though when he was there it was still Zeke’s reign and they were trying to win. But he had nothing but positive things to say about Memphis and he firmly believes Marc Gasol is worthy of being an All-Star (truth!).
  • Al Horford is the chillest bro, ever.
  • Carmelo Anthony’s media horde was bigger than Durant’s, which surprised me. Then I had to consider it. Is Kevin Durant a bigger presence in the NBA now than Melo? How much of that has to do with Melo always being great, but never making huge leaps in his game?
  • At the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest (the best moment covered here), James was in attendance. Simmons had written about his ability to take over a room, which I thought was a lot of wank-wank before this weekend. Not. At. All. Every single human being watched everything he did, from playing with his kids to rapping with Drake, there was nothing he did that failed to captivate.
  • I’ll have more D-League stuff later, but I did want to note that this was the best D-League Dream Factory I’ve seen. The energy was higher and better than it’s ever been. Guys were freaking out over each other. The winning dunk was sick, but Alonzo Gee made a good showing as well.
  • And of course, the best part is the hard hitting interviews.

  • Dallas has done a fantastic job of hosting. Promotion is everywhere, local radio is all over it (even though they won’t stop talking about how the NBA will never compare to the NFL -thanks for the breaking news, sports radio), the facilities are clean, well-run, and transportation’s been moderately efficient. Cuban’s done a great job in running this show.

Horford Just Gets It Done

February 1, 2010 in by with 1 Comment

“Playing out of the position can be difficult to reach certain goals,” noted Horford.

He was unsure, even going into his second season, that staying at the center position was going to benefit him in terms of statistics and efficiency.

After Horford’s rookie season, GMs changed, with Rick Sund replacing Billy Knight. Sund, however, firmly believes that Horford can be a difference maker–at center—and set about, with the help of his head coach, in convincing the willing big man that he can achieve his goals–even at center.

“Talking with GM Rick Sund and Coach Woodson they always had confidence that I could play in this position and be an all star,” confirmed Horford.

Horford has excelled, though he routinely gives ground in height and weight most every night out. Still, in Atlanta’s uber switching defense, Horford just as readily defends guards as centers. His quick feet and lower body power helps him on defense, but Al still is troubled by going up against taller, longer players when he gets the ball offensively.

Horford agrees: “No question—but I feel like I have gotten better playing them taller guys—there’s still a size disadvantage but I feel I try to use my size and quickness little things that those guys aren’t able to do.”

via The Human Highlight Blog: THHB Conversation With: Al Horford.

We over-complicate things. At least I do. So and so’s size can’t match up with so and so. This guy can’t get separation on that guy. This guy doesn’t have that killer instinct. But at the end of the day, it’s basketball, man. I mean, it’s a game that involves putting the little round thing in the other round thing.

Al Horford’s kind of a mystery this season. He was selected as an All-Star, which most people question because Josh Smith has been so outright spectacular. People still consider him too small to play the position, even though he regularly gets the job done. From my limited experience in talking to players, I can tell you Horford was one of the smartest I talked to. And when you watch him work the glass, you can see why. Horford does all the little things that Ben Wallace talks about in “Art of a Beautiful Game” by Ballard. The tap on the guy’s hip then flip to the other side. The burst out to the elbow on three pointers (longer trajectory means a longer rebound). And other than that, he just always manages to outmaneuver his guy. Horford’s All-Star position isn’t wrong. It’s just prescient.

A Flight In The Sun

January 12, 2010 in by with 2 Comments

Last winter, I was driving through yet another Midwest snowstorm, on the phone with Graydon, and I asked him this: “If there was one NBA team that you absolutely would NOT want to face in an NCAA-tournament type game, who would it be?” His answer was immediately the same as mine. Orlando. A team that when it’s hot is lightning hot, anchored by a dominant big, with athletic forwards all over the floor. If they were to get hot, put it together, they would be dangerous enough to pillage defensive help systems and create chaos if everything went just right.

You know the rest.

Now, I’m faced with a mental quandary. Am I imagining the same thing with the Hawks, simply because I like the idea of a repeating pattern?

They were creamed by the Magic, absolutely blown into oblivion. The Cavs beat them on back to back nights. And yet, here they are, playing a higher brand of basketball than they ever have with this core, sweeping the mighty Celtics, sitting at 24-13, and armed with so many weapons that if they were to click… Oh, and have I mentioned they’re only four games back of the top seed in the East?

I think there’s still a gap there, but they’ve got two months to figure it out before the final month of the regular season, which features another game with LA and two more versus Cleveland. They could fall apart as they looked to be doing for the past week before the Celtics games, or hit another gear.Nothing would surprise me. But I do believe that too often we focus on imperfect but great things and ignore that which is new. We did it with Cleveland before LeBron took over Detroit. We did it with Orlando before they took Game 3 in Orlando. And we could be doing it with Atlanta.

Crawford makes the offense a whole new level of terrifying. In years past, if Joe Johnson was having a bad night, you were fine. If he was just having an average night, you could live with it. But now there’s Crawford. If everyone else is clicking and Johnson’s struggling, odds are Crawford will fill in the gap. If Johnson is having a good night and the offense is still lumbering, Crawford kick-fires it. And apparently he’s got a particularly bad taste in his mouth for the Celtics, since he’s pretty much single handedly shown their asses the door the last three times they’ve played. Crawford has spent so much time wackadoo systems that he’s learned an uncanny knack for slipping into the crevices of broken plays or transition jacknifed breaks, somehow always being in a hesitant passer’s line of site with his feet squarely beyond the arc. Having a guy that can make broken possessions into three point buckets? Huge.

As I wrote on Twitter, Joe Johnson only has one of these games like he had last night every 50 or so games. But when he does, it’s like the Archangel hath come for the reckoning. There’s just nothing you can do. There are lots of great players in this league, many of them with better overall,consistent games than Johnson. But Johnson does possess that NOVA gear that only a handful have. He can go to the next evolutionary step and if he gets there, even if it’s just for five or six minutes, he can bury you, break your back, and leave you with nothing but that frustrated sigh. Eddie House knows it. Ray Allen knows it. And Marquis Daniels may be learning it soon.

But then, the Hawks are still flawed, deeply. Most games Johnson doesn’t even approach that level, even though he constantly shoots like he’s trying to reach it. Crawford struggles defending. Mo Evans gets too much floor time for as lost as he sees sometimes. You can rattle Josh Smith. Al Horford gives in to his emotions. The list goes on. So the Hawks are likely not going to make it past the second round, almost definitely not winning the East, and definitely not winning the title.

But imagine if they did. You’re talking about a global shift in our thought processes. Mike Woodson with a ring. And all of a sudden you’re looking at what would likely be a re-signing Joe Johnson, a terrific group of role players, and, oh yeah, Josh Smith and Al Horford are still incredibly young. It would be terrifying and cruel.

But for now, let’s simply allow this to be known. The Celtics want no part of Atlanta in the playoffs. All that running, all that jumping, all that speed and athleticism isn’t just a means to create points, it grabs Boston by the neck and shows it in front of a mirror how old it is. The Hawks are young, fast, and powerful.

They’re a warrior clan, and for now, they seem to have invented warfare for themselves.