Center Admits Kemba Walker Arrival Could Have Influenced Celtics Stay

Al Horford caught the Boston Celtics off guard when he decided to decline the offer of an extension and sign a four-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. He admits that it was a difficult decision as his heart was in Boston but had to make the switch after getting a better offer from the Sixers while also admitting that he had a better chance of winning the championship in Philly rather than Boston.

The C’s were among the favorites to progress from the Eastern Conference last season but their campaign never amounted to any of the pre-season expectations. They struggled for consistency throughout the campaign and finished fifth in the East and were eventually knocked out in five games in the second round of the playoffs.

“And then I’m looking at my career and myself and the years that I have left. There were certain things that we wanted to accomplish as a team and things that we needed to make that happen. We got all those pieces last year, but it didn’t happen for us, and moving forward I didn’t know if it was going to be a two-year wait or whatever it was going to be,” Horford told Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald.

“It was that and the financial reasons. When we started with the team trying to come up with things and we couldn’t agree on certain numbers, that’s when I decided, you know what, I’m going to have to open my free agency. I believe not only that I am worth a certain amount of money, but also I want to be in a position that I have a really good opportunity to win now. You know, my window is now. That’s how I feel.”

Horford also spoke about the difficulties within the Celtics squad during the 2018-19 campaign and admitted that it would have been difficult to co-exist had Kyrie Irving remained in Boston rather than leaving in free agency to join Brooklyn Nets. However, the power forward/center revealed that his decision might have been different if he knew Kemba Walker will be wearing green and white this upcoming campaign.

“I’m not sure that has anything to do with it for me,” Horford said. “I just think that if Kyrie would have stayed, I don’t know if it would have worked. There would have had to be some major changes as far as players, because it was just clear that the group that we had just wasn’t going to be able to coexist.”

“I don’t want to get caught up in the past,” Horford added when asked about playing with Walker, “but, yeah, that would have been totally different.”