{"id":614707,"date":"2026-02-21T00:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T00:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/614707\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T00:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T00:00:16","slug":"al-horford-coy-on-why-he-left-celtics-but-open-to-a-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/614707\/","title":{"rendered":"Al Horford coy on why he left Celtics, but open to a return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 20, 2026, 5:18 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

For fans of the Boston Celtics hoping to get an inkling about what it was that caused longtime Celtics and current Golden State Warriors forward Al Horford to leave Boston for the Bay Area, the Dominican big man likely left them wanting when it comes to answers on his decampment to the Dubs.<\/p>\n

“For me, the decision has something \u2013 it’s something that’s deeper than just the basketball stuff of it,” explained<\/a> the two-time NCAA champ. “And it’s something that at some point I’ll share with people. But for me, it felt like it was the time for me to go elsewhere.”<\/p>\n

Horford of course famously left the Celtics for the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> just before the end of the Kyrie Irving era, only to return via trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> after the Sixers stint went sideways.<\/p>\n

\"Feb<\/p>\n

Still, for fans still pining to see the University of Florida alum in green and white again, he did have a smidge of potentially good news for that contingent of Celtics fandom. “As far as the end of my career, I don’t know,” said Horford of a potential return to Boston.<\/p>\n

“I mean, I always keep that open. It would definitely be a privilege to do that, but I’m just obviously just trying to focus on finishing out this year.”<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n

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iTunes: https:\/\/tiny.ee\/RK47<\/a><\/p>\n

YouTube: https:\/\/tiny.ee\/cOW3<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 20, 2026, 5:18 p.m. ET For fans of the Boston Celtics hoping to get an inkling about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3766],"tags":[72400,7,45,75,3798,46,6,72493,72494,72404,72864,72484,72445,72475,72406,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-614707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston","11":"tag-boston-celtics","12":"tag-bostonceltics","13":"tag-celtics","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-sstssportsnbaceltics","16":"tag-sstsnceltics","17":"tag-tagbasketball","18":"tag-tagcollege-basketball","19":"tag-tagoklahoma-city-thunder","20":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","21":"tag-tagphiladelphia-76ers","22":"tag-tagsports-news","23":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116105682906298600","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}