After big man Al Horford joining the Golden State Warriors as a free agent was rumored to be a matter of when rather than if for a while, it became official on Sunday.
The 39-year-old has verbally committed to a multiyear deal with Golden State, and his stint with the Boston Celtics is over after he spent the last four seasons with the team.
Horford ultimately decided to continue his pro career and play a 19th season in the league, but he supposedly also considered retiring from the NBA entirely.
“Horford verbally committed to the Warriors on Sunday, sources said,” Shams Charania wrote. “The sides are working through the final financial terms, with a signing in the coming days after the final decision from restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, a source said.
“Horford was the Warriors’ top center target entering free agency in July as the 39-year-old pondered playing for Golden State or retirement. Horford is among a few free agents who have been awaiting a decision from Kuminga but chose Sunday to commit to a multiyear contract.”
Horford will join a Warriors team that robbed him of arguably his first real chance at a title. His pursuit of a championship back in 2022 came to an end at the hands of the Warriors after Golden State beat his Celtics in six games in the NBA Finals. The Dominican native later won it all in Boston, however.
Maybe retirement wouldn’t have been on the table for Horford if he hadn’t accomplished the ultimate goal with the Celtics back in 2024. After years of deep playoff runs with zero championships to show for them, he finally won a ring after Boston beat the Dallas Mavericks in the 2024 NBA Finals.
At 39 years old, Horford is no longer the All-Star talent he was with the Atlanta Hawks or in his first stint as a Celtic, but he was maybe the best free agent on the open market before he committed to the Warriors.
Even with his 40th birthday not all that far off, he’s still one of the premier defensive players at his position. Horford held opponents to an effective field goal percentage of just 46.0 percent when defending isolations a season ago, and that was good enough for the seventh-best mark in the league. Moreover, he defended the sixth-most isolations of any player last season.
Then on the other end, he projects to be a hand-in-glove fit with a Golden State offense that revolves around the 3-pointer with his capacity to space the floor. Across 257 regular-season games played in his last four seasons, he converted his 3s at a 39.2 percent clip on 4.5 attempts per game.
