Al Horford hasn’t played basketball under Billy Donovan since 2007, but in September, he sat through another speech delivered by his college coach.
Donovan was called to Springfield, Mass., for enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, cinched by coaching the University of Florida to consecutive national championships. Horford attended with his son Ean, 10, spiffily dressed in matching blue suits a few weeks shy of training camp with the Golden State Warriors.
“Probably the highlight of my summer,” said Horford, once a Gator, always a Gator.
Principles championed and honed by Horford at Florida as a power forward under Donovan have propelled the 39-year-old big man through his own Hall of Fame-worthy basketball career. His 19th season in the NBA marks the 20th anniversary of the program’s first NCAA title team, also driven by classmates Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Taurean Green, lifelong friends.
The selflessness, strength and skill that galvanized the Gators foreshadowed the impact Horford would have for the Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers and Oklahoma City Thunder the past 18 years. As a five-time All-Star, NBA champion (2024) and former All-Defensive honoree (2017-18) drafted third overall in 2007, he remains as committed to the championship chase as a late-blooming Florida recruit.
“He’s got a real, real clear understanding of exactly what goes into (winning). Exactly,” said Donovan, now head coach of the Chicago Bulls. “And he had it at a very, very young age. I don’t know how he got it. But he’s got incredible awareness and understanding of what it takes.”
Initially nicknamed “Gator” with the Warriors by Golden State assistant coach Anthony Vereen, Horford goes by “Big Gator” now because rookie wing Will Richard (aka “Baby Gator”) also went to Florida. Horford has settled into a reserve role as a top free-agent acquisition who lends the Warriors toward managing his workload with an eye on his health for postseason play.
Standing 6-foot-9 and 240 pounds with a fine-tuned 3-point shooting touch, Horford didn’t expect to play in the NBA for more than 10 or 12 seasons, “but as we got going, as I got going throughout the years, taking care of my body and doing the things I need to do, it just kind of happened.”
His statistical averages (12.9 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.2 assists) in 1,146 games — strong as they are — don’t illustrate the impact he has had on his teams as a screener, passer, versatile defender, timely scorer and locker-room leader.
“He’s always Mr. Steady,” said Brewer, an assistant coach with the New Orleans Pelicans. “Every night, he’s going to do the same things. He’s going to do everything right. He’s always in the right spot, and that’s why he’s playing this long, man. He’s timeless.”
Born in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, and raised by his mom in Santo Domingo, Horford was 14 when he moved to Lansing, Mich., to live with his dad, Tito, formerly an NBA center. He relocated to jump-start his recruitment and sprouted from a guard into a rugged power forward, starring at Grand Ledge High School and igniting interest from powerhouse programs.
Chief among them was Michigan, the favorite for his family members who hoped Horford would stay close to home. The Wolverinesfirst secured Horford’s commitment “probably for like two days, and then it was just killing me,” prompting a phone call to head coach Tommy Amaker.
Horford invited Amaker over to tell him he was rescinding his commitment as Donovan and Florida were coming on strong. Donovan was sold on Horford’s intangibles when he saw him crying after a loss in Las Vegas at a summer club tournament. Said Horford, also noting he matured through reneging his commitment to Amaker in person: “I felt like with Billy, the way that he was talking, how he wanted to run the offense, play with pace, movement and I just related to a lot of those things. That’s how I wanted to play.”
A trip to Gainesville. Fla., clinched his commitment and several months later, Horford moved into his room inside Florida’s Springs Residential Complex, meeting Brewer and Green upon his arrival. They halted the setup of their two-bedroom suite — Horford roomed with Noah and Brewer with Green as they shared a bathroom — to play one-on-one at the basketball complex with Noah joining as soon as he showed up.
The “04s,” as their coaches would call them, were inseparable the next three years, dining, studying and winning together.
“Our chemistry just clicked immediately and we did everything together,” said Green, now an assistant coach at Florida after 14 years of professional play. “Obviously, our off-court chemistry and connection there translated to the basketball court.”
By competing against the program’s upperclassmen and meshing their complementary play styles – Horford and Noah were versatile up front, Brewer manned the wing and Green ran the point – the freshmen foursome lifted the intensity of workouts and practices immediately. Horford balanced the outgoing trio with a measured sense of focus and work ethic. Not to suggest he couldn’t crack a joke. He watched every episode of “Chappelle’s Show” with Brewer.
“He was an unbelievable worker. He embraced it,” said Donnie Jones, formerly an assistant at Florida who worked with Horford on his 3-point shot. A career 37.6% 3-point shooter with 988 triples to his credit, Horford attempted four 3-pointers in college.
Brewer said Horford was also “always meticulous” about his diet and recovery.
“There’s no secret. His success is the way he approaches the game,” Jones added. “He was a guy who was just always doing the right things to put himself in situations to help the team win. It was always about the team.”
Plans to redshirt Horford as a freshman were scrapped amid his practice performance against an experienced frontline anchored by former Warriors forward David Lee, twice an All-Star in the NBA. Donovan said whichever team Horford was on in practice seemed to win its drill or scrimmage. Five games into his freshman season, Horford cracked the starting lineup — logging 5.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 22.8 minutes.
The Gators finished that year 24-8.
“Just tells you how dumb I am” talking about redshirting Horford, Donovan joked. “… He just became a monster. He was unbelievable, the competitiveness, the toughness and the mentality.”
Horford and his classmates reconvened in Gainesville midway through the ensuing summer, playing pickup, training in the weight room and eyeing their chance to play together. They started 2005-06 unranked, compromising four-fifths of Florida’s starting lineup alongside sharpshooting guard Lee Humphrey.
Their organizational ethos that season (and the following season) has stuck with Horford ever since.
As it was, Horford explained, “Corey and I were the returning starters so the expectation would’ve been, ‘These are our two guys. They’re going to score 20 points, get 10 rebounds, do that kind of stuff.’ Coach was like, ‘Nah, what I need is five guys to score between 10 and 14 points and for us to play team ball, and we’re going to be fine and figure it out.’ And once he said that, it made it very simple for us. We all bought into it. And it’s a group of guys that really, genuinely played to win.”
A 17-0 start — including back-to-back wins over ranked opponents (Wake Forest and Syracuse) at Madison Square Garden — jolted Florida with confidence it kept all year, weathering a pair of losing streaks en route to the SEC tournament title. Donovan’s equal-opportunity offense produced five double-figure average scorers, with Horford and Noah centering the defense.
Horford also centered the locker room and was dubbed “The Godfather” by Donovan because “he was like the head of the family.” His teammates responded whenever he addressed them, deviating from his reserved demeanor.
“Al was the one who kept everybody sane,” Brewer said. “When we got too crazy, Al was the one to reel everybody back in. Al is like the serious funny guy, I guess you could say. He’s got a great sense of humor. He can be funny. But he’s going to make sure we do everything right.”
Horford averaged 11.3 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.7 blocks his sophomore season, unconcerned with his output statistically, only concerned with the outcome for Florida. He didn’t think about the national championship until the Gators beat Georgetown in the Sweet 16. In the aftermath, he watched highlights of the victory in his hotel room with Noah, who told him, “I think we’ve got a chance to do something special.”
Two days later, they beat Villanova — clinching a berth in the Final Four. On their way to the Final Four news conference in Indianapolis, Donovan suggested to Horford and Noah they had a chance to win back-to-back titles before they’d won their first. A blowout win over George Mason followed, setting up another blowout over UCLA.
As the buzzer sounded, the celebration started and Horford joined his teammates beneath the confetti, but first he honored the Bruins with handshakes. Said former Gators assistant Anthony Grant, now the head coach at Dayton. “Probably the biggest compliment that I can give a young guy now is a level of comparison to (Horford). The work ethic or the character or just the aura around them is like that. Al is a special guy.”
Donovan was right. Horford and his classmates bypassed the NBA that summer, returning to Florida to defend their title in 2006-07 as preseason No. 1. Their chemistry strengthened, they rolled through their schedule en route to the national championship in Atlanta against Ohio State in Atlanta.
“It felt so special to do it with really good friends and guys that were about the right stuff,” Horford said, “and that we really just bought. That’s what made it, in my eyes, more special.”
The day before the game, after Florida’s practice, Horford requested a private conversation with Donovan, mired in rumors regarding the vacant head coaching position at Kentucky. Horford sensed the rumor mill was affecting his freshman teammates and successfully urged Donovan to address them in private.
When first-half foul trouble afflicted Noah, freshman big man Marresse Speights was ready to go.
“The awareness, to me, to even come to me and say that was so amazing to me,” Donovan said. “It’s like that kind of awareness he’s got. He understands how everybody plays a role and how everybody is a part” of the team.
Donovan’s enshrinement made for a Gators reunion this summer in Springfield, where he spoke for more than 13 minutes about the thrills of his coaching career. Midway through, he dignified Florida with Horford, Noah, Brewer, Green and Humphrey as one of the greatest teams of all time.
“They taught me so much about winning and what it was to be a team,” Donovan said. “I’m so grateful for the experience with those guys.”
He’ll probably speak about it in Springfield someday.
“I definitely learned about the importance of team basketball and the awareness of valuing every player on your team from your top player all the way to the very last player on the team,” Horford said. “… Playing that style of play has always been so enticing, playing together and doing it as a unit. Those values, those team values, togetherness, that’s what I brought to the NBA with me. That’s what I carry with me and try to live out and pump into the teams that I’m on.”