AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > July > 02
Monday, July 2, 2007
Horford gave Gators their bite
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Each of the others had a different handle for him. Being economical, Taurean Green called him Horf. Being whimsical, Joakim Noah called him Horfy. And what was Corey Brewer’s choice of nicknames?
“He just called me Al,” Alfred Joel Horford said Monday.
Because the Hawks called his name on draft night, Al Horford has gone from being part of one of the happiest families in college basketball history to being the biggest new part of one of the NBA’s most dysfunctional franchises. He treasures the years he spent at Florida, but for him and the other celebrated Oh-Fours — roommates Brewer, Green and Noah, so dubbed because they were members of the 2004 freshman class — it was, Horford said, “time to move on.”
Some members of great teams look better than they really are. Horford is the Gator most apt to look great on his own. He’s listed as a power forward, but a full season won’t pass before he’s the Hawks’ starting center. Anyone who saw Florida in person knows Horford was the most imposing among the many imposing Gators. Anyone who watched closely knows even the all-for-one Gators deferred to him when in dire need of a basket.
“Billy [Donovan, Florida’s coach] would tell me, ‘We have to go through Al,’ ” said Tito Horford, Al’s father and briefly an NBA center himself. “If he was double-teamed, he’d make the pass. If he wasn’t, he’d score.”
The biggest hoop of Florida’s second championship run came with 2:34 left and the scored tied against Butler in the Sweet 16. Brewer fed Horford, who was guarded by the 6-foot-6 Brandon Crone. Said Horford that night: “Corey was signaling to me, ‘Go score, go score.’ “
He muscled into the lane, scored the basket, drew the fifth foul on Crone and made the free throw. Said Crone afterward: “Horford’s a great player. He’s also huge.”
Some players are tall but not wide. Horford is both. He’ll get bigger and stronger. “Believe me,” Tito Horford said. “He’s going to come here and do some work.”
You can tell a lot about a guy from the way his teammates view him. The other Gators regarded Horford not with awe — they were too rollicking a crew for that — but with absolute respect. When Noah was in town for his Hawks’ audition, he told Billy Knight that his pal Horfy was “our rock; he was there every night.”
And now the Hawks, who in years past sought to make do with pebbles, have a rock of their own. No Gator improved more than Horford over the summer between the two titles. No Gator will be a better pro. (And this isn’t to slight Noah and Brewer, both of whom will be good.) The Oh-Fours — plus shooter Lee Humphrey and sixth man Chris Richard, who were a year ahead — together authored a run of greatness unseen in the contemporary college game, but Horford’s real greatness lies ahead.
“We all sacrificed [for the common goal],” Horford said of the Gators. And then, gently: “I do feel I can do a little more [in the NBA].”
Yes, he’ll miss the others. The Oh-Fours lived together for three years and never had a major blow-up. “What was so good about it,” Horford said, “was that we’d go somewhere else when we got on each other’s nerves. Like sometimes Taurean, who’s intense, would get into it with Joakim, who’s more laid-back.” (Noah? Laid-back? “Off the court,” Horford said.)
In Gainesville he was part of a glorious whole. Here he’ll be a focal point of a work in progress. He hasn’t yet lost a game in this city — he’s 10-0 here, having won two SEC tournaments and the most recent Final Four — and he’ll help make the Hawks, who haven’t had a winning season this century, winners in due course.
You can call him Horf or Horfy, or you can call him Al. But here’s one thing you won’t be calling him: a bust.
Permalink | Comments (39) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Mark Bradley
