Halfway through the third quarter of Game 2 of the Finals, when the Boston Celtics pulled away from what was a close game with a sudden 10-0 run and never looked back, I started to think about which members of the Celtics I would be happiest for upon their inevitable hoisting of the Larry O’Brien trophy. However loathsome you find the Celtics as a collective, surely anyone would agree that Portuguese trailblazer and Celtics benchwarmer Neemias Queta winning a title is cool. Jaylen Brown is a cool guy who was inspirational throughout 2020 and in the bubble in particular, and he most regularly does cool basketball stuff for a team whose stylistic tendencies bend toward the actuarial. Svi Mykhailiuk’s win is a win for Ukraine. Derrick White is rad. Mostly, however, I am thrilled for Al Horford, who got his first ring after trying and failing to do so throughout his previous 16 seasons.
With the Game 5 win on Monday, Horford did what anyone unfortunate enough to be in such a predicament would want to do: erase his name from a list he shared with Karl Malone. Last night was Horford’s 186th playoff game. That’s only seven fewer playoff games than Malone played in his 18-year career, which is the most anyone’s ever played without winning a title. Had the Celtics fallen short, Horford would almost certainly have gotten up above 200. One-hundred and eighty-six games is so many; Zion Williamson has only played in 184 regular-season games.
To appear in the playoffs that many times, whether or not you win a championship along the way, takes luck and endurance and, corny as it may sound, a good deal of competitive will. Horford is 38 years old, a veteran of three college seasons and now 17 NBA seasons, and has won consistently at every stop. The defining trait of his career is its evolution—even after nearly $300 million in career earnings, he kept developing and adapting his game such that he would always have a place in a competitive NBA rotation. Horford made it to the postseason in every healthy season he had in Atlanta, every time he was with the Celtics, and once with the hilarious, stupid, 2019–20 Sixers. He has only failed to make the playoffs twice, once in 2014 when he tore his right pectoral and the Hawks lost in the first round, and once in 2021, when the Sixers exiled him to Oklahoma City during the first year of their tanking project.
Horford is a full three years older than his head coach, making him the first title-winning player to earn that honor with a non-player coach. He’s been around so long that he was in the league for eight years before he started shooting threes, evolving with the game as it changed around him. Almost as many members of his 2007 draft class are currently assistant coaches as are actively playing in the league.
His teammates seemed pointedly thrilled for him. “Nobody deserved it more than Al,” said Finals MVP Jaylen Brown. “It’s been an honor to be by his side. And Al Horford is a real-life legend and hero. It’s been great to be his teammate.” Jrue Holiday was similarly effusive. “Knowing the type of person that Al is, knowing the leader that he is, even off the court, the father that he is, just the all-around great person and great human,” Holiday said, “I’d run through a brick wall for him.”
Oftentimes when an older player finally caps their career off with a long-elusive title, they are either on the fringes of their team or are notably diminished from their peak in some way. When Horford was sent off to OKC in 2021, I thought it was to end his career quietly. After all, he’d taken the Sixers’ free-agency offer and received what was surely the last big payday of his career, and OKC couldn’t even find a trade for him until sending him back to Boston in the Kemba Walker salary dump. But Horford was key for the Celtics in these playoffs, shouldering a huge burden for a team that was missing Kristaps Porzingis for almost the entirety of their run. He came off the bench for half of this past season, then started 15 of 19 playoff games and increased his averages across the board when his team needed him.
Malone’s record is now safe for at least one more year, but fear not: Trailing Horford by a measly 20 games is James Harden, who has played 166 playoff games and has yet to win the Finals. Horford’s final gift is a sweet one, as we will all be able to laugh at Harden in a couple more years when he inevitably eclipses Malone.
Correction: An earlier version of this post said that James Harden has played 166 playoff games without making the Finals.