Al Horford earns incentive bonus in Celtics’ Eastern Conference finals win
Jaylen Brown got a smaller bonus, too.
There were many reasons for Al Horford to be emotional following the Celtics’ Game 7 win in the Eastern Conference finals over the Heat on Sunday.
The 15-year vet held the record for most playoff games played (141) without reaching the NBA Finals. On Thursday, his grandfather, José Reynoso Núñez, passed away at the age of 81.
With just those two things, there was certainly a good reason for Horford to be emotional. But there’s more. Because the Celtics reached the NBA Finals, an extra $5 million of Horford’s salary for the 2022-23 season is guaranteed, bringing his guaranteed salary for next season from $14.5 million to $19.5 million
Horford could stand to gain even more money if the Celtics win the NBA Finals. Horford’s $26.5 million salary for the 2022-23 season will become fully guaranteed if Boston beats Golden State. Horford’s partially guaranteed salary for the 2022-23 season is the final year of a four-year, $97 million deal he signed with the 76ers in 2019.
The Celtics plan to bring Horford back next season on his fully-guaranteed $26.5 million salary, MassLive’s Brian Robb reported Monday.
Horford ended up playing a bigger role on the Celtics this season in the midst of a title run. After a down season in Philadelphia and playing just 28 games with the Thunder in 2020-21, Horford scored 10.2 points per game and had 7.7 rebounds per game in 69 starts for the Celtics. His ability to guard multiple positions and defensive versatility was a major reason why the Celtics had the league’s best defense in the regular season.
Horford’s resurgence continued into the postseason. Down 2-1 against the Bucks, Horford scored a playoff career-high 30 points on 11-of-14 shooting to help the Celtics even up the series.
As the Celtics celebrated their conference title, it was the journey that Horford focused on — not the financial incentive he earned.
“Coach Udoka was very clear what he wanted us to be as a team, our identity, defensively, hang our hat on the defensive end,” Horford said. “And on offense, play freely, use Jaylen [Brown] and Jayson [Tatum] and just kind of just go. And us understanding and buying into that. It took us a while, but I feel like once we started to understand how we needed to play, we became more consistent.
“This journey is not easy. We had a hard path. Brooklyn, Milwaukee, the defending champs, and Miami is a team that… look what they did, they took us to the brink. For our group it’s resiliency, it’s switching the page, moving on to the next thing, and we did that all season, and I really noticed it, and I was telling this to JB (Jaylen Brown), but it was like February, early February, that I just noticed how we started to click.
“People were like, well, you guys are beating teams that have guys out, guys are hurt and all these things, and I was like, it doesn’t matter, I’m seeing something different in how we’re playing. That’s how we’re just going to carry it on, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
Horford also focused on the emotional toll he went through, especially in recent days.
“You know, it’s been difficult for me and my family,” Horford said of the recent week. “My grandfather was somebody that I was extremely close with, somebody that I really care for, and all week my mom, my family just kind of telling me to just go out there and play, that’s something that he would have wanted me to do, to just continue on and really just try and stay focused and understand that he’s at peace now.”
Horford reached the conference finals twice in the past with the Celtics, losing to the Cavaliers both times in 2017 and 2018. After Boston had a disappointing 2019 season, Horford signed the aforementioned deal with Philadelphia in hopes of helping Joel Embiid and the 76ers reach the Finals.
After the last two seasons, Horford shared he was “very grateful” to be back in Boston and to play in the NBA Finals.
Horford wasn’t the only Celtic to earn a financial incentive with Sunday’s win. Jaylen Brown earned a $964,286 bonus because the Celtics reached the Finals. Brown would receive an undisclosed bouns if the Celtics win the title, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks. If the Celtics, who are $358,000 below the luxury tax line, win the title, they would actually become a tax-paying team, via Marks.
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