(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports Illustrated)
In the NBA’s free-agency period of 2016, as Kevin Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder for the team that had beaten them in the Western Conference finals, selecting the Golden State Warriors over the Boston Celtics and other suitors, Al Horford did the opposite. He left the Atlanta Hawks for the team they had discarded in the first round of the playoffs, choosing Boston from a list that also included OKC.
It was a sliding-doors moment that transformed the Warriors into an unstoppable juggernaut and the Celtics into … well, something better than they were. Asked at Horford’s introductory news conference if the signing made Boston a contender, then-general manager Danny Ainge said, “We still have work to do.”
Those Celtics counted Isaiah Thomas as their only All-Star and Avery Bradley as their second-leading scorer. “The vision that I see here,” as Horford described it at the time, included a cache of draft assets, one of which they had just used on Jaylen Brown, that could be flipped for championship-caliber talent.
Horford was the biggest free agent ever to sign with the Celtics. They put their faith in one another, really knowing one truth about each other: They had won before, and they wanted to win again. Horford, a two-time NCAA champion, was looking for his first NBA title, and the Celtics sought their record 18th. Together they would figure this out. It would require patience. And luck. How much of both neither knew.
Nobody in NBA history would appear in more playoff games before winning his first championship than Horford, whose Celtics face the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday for the first time since beating them in the Finals in June.
Entering last season, Horford had played 167 career playoff games. Only Durant and LeBron James have played more among active players. Only 32 players ever had played more. They are, mostly, the all-timers. And only two of them — Karl Malone and John Stockton — had, like Horford, never won a championship.
As Malone and Stockton were to Michael Jordan, Horford had been to James. He lost his first 14 playoff games against James, who…
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