{"id":37213,"date":"2022-06-05T03:41:03","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T03:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/how-al-horfords-3-pointer-lengthened-his-career\/"},"modified":"2022-06-05T03:41:03","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T03:41:03","slug":"how-al-horfords-3-pointer-lengthened-his-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/how-al-horfords-3-pointer-lengthened-his-career\/","title":{"rendered":"How Al Horford&#8217;s 3-pointer lengthened his career"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>SAN FRANCISCO &#8211; Boston Celtics center Al Horford doesn&#8217;t have the prettiest shooting form, but the end results are to be respected.<\/p>\n<p>The Golden State Warriors should have a new level of respect for the distance in which the 15-year veteran can launch it.  Horford was one of the NBA Finals&#8217; Game 1 heroes, producing a team-high 26 points and shooting 6-of-8 from beyond the arc to lead the Celtics to a 120-108 victory on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The 3-point weapon he possesses wasn&#8217;t always in his arsenal.  In fact, the big man said he never desired it to be a part of his game di lui.  He had to be nudged into the possibility, and the nudging began as early as his second year in the league by former Atlanta Hawks general manager Rick Sund, who is now the senior adviser of basketball operations for the Hawks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRick is the one that told me, &#8216;Man, you have a really good mid-range.  You should start shooting corner threes, that&#8217;s going to help extend your career, &#8216;\u201dHorford told Yahoo Sports as he was leaving Chase Center after practice Saturday.  &#8220;I used to be a banger down low and posting up.  He was like, &#8216;Man, you&#8217;re not going to last in this league if you keep playing like that.&#8217;  Rick Sund was the first to tell me. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>That conversation took place during the 2008-09 season, well before today&#8217;s analytic trend of most players being given the green light to hoist 3-pointers.<\/p>\n<p>Sund saw something in Horford that many hadn&#8217;t realized yet.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I remember our conversation very well.  We were discussing if he&#8217;d be more suited as a four-man or a five, \u201dSund told Yahoo Sports via phone.  \u201cI believed and relayed that it would be to his advantage of him to develop into a stretch-five and draw guys away from the basket.  I told him to work on that corner three and he&#8217;d really be an effective five-man.  I also told him he&#8217;ll have a great opportunity to make the All-Star as a stretch-five.  This is just what I saw. &#8220;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\" style=\"max-height: 640px\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-loader\" style=\"padding-bottom:67%;\"><noscript><img alt=\"Boston Celtics center Al Horford shoots against the Golden State Warriors during Game 1 of the 2022 NBA Finals at Chase Center in San Francisco on June 2, 2022. (AP Photo \/ Jed Jacobsohn)\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/Pf30cbBgNVjyX_L70PCUWg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2022-05\/27548af0-e463-11ec-aae6-cbc7ac0d1347\" class=\"caas-img\"\/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\">Boston Celtics center Al Horford shoots against the Golden State Warriors during Game 1 of the 2022 NBA Finals at Chase Center in San Francisco on June 2, 2022. (AP Photo \/ Jed Jacobsohn)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Horford said he understood where Sund was coming from, but he was reluctant to add the 3-ball due to how it would be perceived by fans, teammates and the opposition.<\/p>\n<p><button class=\"link caas-button collapse-button\" aria-label=\"\" title=\"\" data-ylk=\"elm:readmore;slk:Story continues\">Story continues<\/button><\/p>\n<p>\u201cComing into the league, I never imagined shooting the 3-ball.  I definitely was on edge at times when I began attempting threes in games, \u201dHorford told Yahoo Sports.  \u201cPlayers start looking at you crazy.  You know how we are in the league, like, &#8216;Hell, nah.  He&#8217;s trying to shoot threes? &#8216;  So it was that type of thing you had to deal with. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Horford saw up close the reaction of Hawks fans when fellow frontcourt mate Josh Smith &#8211; who was a career 28.5% 3-point shooter &#8211; would let threes fly to the chagrin and moans of fans as he&#8217;s releasing.  It took Horford time to fully embrace the idea.<\/p>\n<p>In his first eight seasons, he shot a total of 65 triples.  During his ninth season, he committed to it and was 88-of-256 for a respectable 34.4%.  Throughout that season he still wasn&#8217;t confident in his shot di lui, but he credited two former teammates for building his confidence di lui.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy teammates were very surprised when I started shooting them, but two big influences for me were Kyle Korver and Pero Antic,\u201d Horford told Yahoo Sports.  \u201cBoth guys encouraged me to shoot the ball.  And any time I shot it in the game and I looked at them to see their reaction, they were very supportive and comfortable with me shooting.  So mentally for me, that was a big deal. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Sund said current Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer deserves some credit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen Bud came to Atlanta, he was more open to thinking outside the box, and he also encouraged Al to shoot threes and the rest is history,\u201d Sund told Yahoo Sports.  \u201cEvery player that Bud coaches plays so much better than when Bud wasn&#8217;t there.  Look at Pat Connaughton in Milwaukee, Paul Millsap with us, Khris Middleton.  He did it with Al, too. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>After the Celtics eliminated the Miami Heat and Horford &#8211; who is shooting 46.3% from beyond the arc this postseason &#8211; advanced to the Finals for the first time in his career, he received a text from an individual who believed in his skills before he did.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was so happy for him.  I texted him congratulations and just told him how proud I am of what he&#8217;s accomplishing, \u201dSund told Yahoo Sports.  \u201cWhat people don&#8217;t realize is that he doesn&#8217;t have the ball in his hands long.  He&#8217;s not a ball-stopper.  He keeps it moving and then he&#8217;s always moving, which is rare for a big man.  He&#8217;s a five-man version of Steph [Curry].  Because he&#8217;s not a ball-stopper, it allows him to open up the floor for everyone else.  He&#8217;s just a great asset for any team.  I&#8217;m glad to see him having success. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Before Horford hopped on the bus to exit the arena, he had a parting message.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRick was right.  I think I have gained extra years by adding the 3-point shot, \u201dHorford told Yahoo Sports.  &#8220;I&#8217;m just grateful.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SAN FRANCISCO &#8211; Boston Celtics center Al Horford doesn&#8217;t have the prettiest shooting form, but the end results are to be respected. The Golden State Warriors should have a new level of respect for the distance in which the 15-year veteran can launch it. Horford was one of the NBA Finals&#8217; Game 1 heroes, producing &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/how-al-horfords-3-pointer-lengthened-his-career\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How Al Horford&#8217;s 3-pointer lengthened his career<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/xN7ptAkFVRlV7eifiHulgQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyMDA7aD04MDA-\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2022-05\/27548af0-e463-11ec-aae6-cbc7ac0d1347","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37213"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37213\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}