Rivalry is part of what makes sports so amazing. the Boston Red Sox Opposite New York Yankees. the Boston Celtics Opposite Los Angeles Lakers. the New England Patriots against… Eli Manning.
And in recent years, the Celtics and Philadelphia Seventy Sixers Develop competition.
Kind of.
Since the 2014-15 season, Boston holds a 31-13 record against Philadelphia, including the playoffs. It goes back to Embiid’s quote: “It’s not a rivalry. I don’t know our record against them, but it’s pretty bad. They always kick the a**.”
Regardless, there is clearly a certain antipathy between the two sides. Both teams turn up the heat at least a little bit when they face off, and fans of each franchise generally can’t stand each other.
But in the midst of all the chaos, one man stands out. Alhorford.
The feud between the Celtics and the Safety 76ers runs even deeper with Horford, who is generally quite the head. It’s not that Horford holds great disdain for the city of Philadelphia. No, the opposite is true.
CelticsBlog’s sister site and SB Nation’s 76 page, Liberty Ballers, recently wrote: Article detailing “The Hater’s Guide to the Boston Celtics.” It begins with “Boston Celtics are miserable” and discusses how frustrating Boston is.
The article goes on to list the top five Celtics players 76ers fans should hate the most. Jason Tatum could be the obvious answer, as he hit three-on-76 earlier this season. Marcus Smart deserves a claim at the top of the list with his generally frustrating antics.
but not. Horford is number one.
In fact, Horford has so much real estate inside the heads of 76ers fans that even his sister, Anna Horford, I decided to buy some propertyalso.
Philadelphia can’t seem to get over the fact that they completely screwed up their 2019 season and proceeded to mismanage their use of Horford terribly.
Celtics fans dreaded seeing Horford, a Boston fan favorite, join the 76ers. However, two years later, he returned to green and white, draped on a silver platter from before Oklahoma City Thunder. The team that earned a first-round pick out of only 76 players to take over Horford’s contract.
And for what it’s worth, it seems that in every second Horford spent away from Boston, all he could think about was getting back.
“I tell people I think we absolutely showed him back to Boston because we all wanted him so badly. Anna Horford told Jared Weiss of The Athletic last June. Al hinted at that too. He was always nostalgic for Boston when he was in Philly and when he was in Oklahoma. Ma, the stars lined up, we came back here, and it just worked out.”
Three years into his only year in Philadelphia and Horford is still on the minds of 76ers fans. The team’s failure to compete effectively with the 2018-19 group is a big part of their dislike, but it’s also rooted in the fact that Horford has dominated the 76 every chance he’s had since.
During his time in Philadelphia, Horford shot 35.0% from long range – his lowest since his years with Atlanta Hawks. Since leaving, in six games-against-76, Horford has shot 15-of-34 (44.1%) from outside the arc.
That includes a stellar performance at the end of February, in which the Celtics pulled off a stellar comeback behind Horford’s huge triple.
“Man, Al was huge, wasn’t he?” said Tatum after the match. “He’s the reason we’re back in the game. We were down 15, I don’t think he scored yet, I think he scored four goals in that third quarter and catapulted[ed] That run to climb to start the fourth.”
But in addition to his mastery of the three points, Horford has historically given Embiid problems. Admittedly, Embiid has had the best of Horford this season, shooting 18-of-28 against the Celtics big man. But this is a new success for Embiid.
Last year, he shot 5 of 16 against Horford. The year before moving to Philadelphia, Embiid was 18 of 44. And the season before that, it was 4 of 11 in the regular season and 12 of 33 in the postseason.
When Horford joined the 76ers, it was speculated that one of the main reasons for Philadelphia to make the move was so that Embiid would not have to deal with Horford in the East anymore. (Narrator: spoiler alert, it didn’t work out too well.)
The point is, heading into the second-round series in Boston, the Celtics are focused on Embiid, James Harden, and getting the job done. And from the looks of it, the 76ers (their fans, at least) are fixated on Horford.
Fortunately for Boston, that’s just the way Horford likes it.
“I love it,” Horford said when asked about the constant trash talk from the Philadelphia crowd. “I take it as respect. I wasn’t having the best attacking game [and] I feel like that kind of thing pushed me to go.”