Does Horford know?

[DERRENMATTS]

I wonder if Horford signed with us, knowing what lies ahead in the very near future (a wink wink from Durant)?

[mev17]

I thought the same thing - hoping anyway that they talked to each other the way LeBron and Bosh talked to each other and planned on going to the same team. No harm in dreaming!!

[DERRENMATTS]

If indeed its true that Horford was on Durant's short list of players he wanted to play with, then I'm sure they were texting each other.

It was either during Durant's meeting with Ainge, or shortly after, that Horford made his decision. Could it be that Horford was waiting to hear from Durant about where he's going to choose?

[DERRENMATTS]

By the way, David Aldridge said it was a very close decision between us and the Wizards -- so close that if he made the decision last night, he would have gone to WAS.

That kind of disappoints me.

But again, maybe Durant had something to do with Horford's decision to choose us.

[FLCeltsFan]

From an interview with Al's dad, Tito, in the Globe:

Horford’s father, Tito, said in a telephone interview Saturday night that his son had narrowed his choices down to the Hawks and the Celtics. As the family discussed the options, the conversation often returned to the uncommon passion of Boston’s fans.

In Atlanta, support at home games was sometimes tepid, despite the fact that the Hawks had gone 108-56 over the last two years.

“There wasn’t as much motivation for him when he saw all the empty seats when they were winning,” Tito Horford said. “He said to me, ‘Dad, when we were playing Boston, they were down 15 points and they were cheering their team like they were winning the game. They’re so into the game.’ This is special for us, especially for him.”

Take a bow Celtics fans!   Hawks fans were always a bit tepid even when their team was winning.  And it cost them. 

[jrmzt]

i'd find it hard to choose washington. wall is good, beal is injury prone and outside of those 2, you have some potential in otto potter but an overall very mediocre team defense.. and we know defense wins championships. Boston on the other hand was top in forcing turnovers, one of the better perimeter defensive teams in the league and one of the top rebounding teams in the league. simply put, we allow durant to have zero competition at being the alpha dog whilst still ensuring he is surrounded by a top defense so he isn't trying to dig a team out of the hole each time.

[afceltic]

Having lived about 45 minutes from Atlanta for 3 years I know first hand how fair weather and crappy their fans are. Being a 49ers fan, my last NFL game that I went to was the 2012 NFC Championship Game in Atlanta. The game wasn't sold out and some area's were tarped over in the upper deck. Not to mention there were about 30K SF fans out of the 75K at the game. It was almost like SF won the NFC at home with the celebration that was going on in and out of the stadium afterwords.

[afceltic]

Jul 3, 2016 9:21:02 GMT -5 afceltic said:

Having lived about 45 minutes from Atlanta for 3 years I know first hand how fair weather and crappy their fans are. Being a 49ers fan, my last NFL game that I went to was the 2012 NFC Championship Game in Atlanta. The game wasn't sold out and some area's were tarped over in the upper deck. Not to mention there were about 30K SF fans out of the 75K at the game. It was almost like SF won the NFC at home with the celebration that was going on in and out of the stadium afterwords.

I still can't believe that Beal is going to get 26 million a year for a shooting guard who isn't a very good shooter. His career averages are 16 ppg 3 assists and 4 rebounds while shooting .397 from the 3 point line. The NBA has gone stupid with some of these contracts.

Who else gets satisfaction out of how bad the Fakers are? Nobody wants to go there because of the taxes and horrible management. For all of the money that they had to spend, they spent 90% of it on Mozgov/Clarkson/Deng. None of those guys are difference makers and they won't be a playoff team, but won't be quite bad enough to get another high lottery pick. Welcome to mediocrity LA fans.

[DERRENMATTS]

Jul 3, 2016 9:26:24 GMT -5 afceltic said:

Jul 3, 2016 9:21:02 GMT -5 afceltic said:

Having lived about 45 minutes from Atlanta for 3 years I know first hand how fair weather and crappy their fans are. Being a 49ers fan, my last NFL game that I went to was the 2012 NFC Championship Game in Atlanta. The game wasn't sold out and some area's were tarped over in the upper deck. Not to mention there were about 30K SF fans out of the 75K at the game. It was almost like SF won the NFC at home with the celebration that was going on in and out of the stadium afterwords.

I still can't believe that Beal is going to get 26 million a year for a shooting guard who isn't a very good shooter. His career averages are 16 ppg 3 assists and 4 rebounds while shooting .397 from the 3 point line. The NBA has gone stupid with some of these contracts.

Who else gets satisfaction out of how bad the Fakers are? Nobody wants to go there because of the taxes and horrible management. For all of the money that they had to spend, they spent 90% of it on Mozgov/Clarkson/Deng. None of those guys are difference makers and they won't be a playoff team, but won't be quite bad enough to get another high lottery pick. Welcome to mediocrity LA fans.

Makes you appreciate Danny more and more, right?

Jim Buss is not bringing a championship to the Lakers under his watch.

[jmost]

Hate the Fakers. Always have. Always will. May they rot in mediocrity.

I couldn't believe Beal got that much money. Crazy. Wait until the guys currently under contract hit free agency and want similar deals but the money has all been spent. The teams that were careful and still have money left may be able to score some nice talent for less than teams are shelling out now.

[DERRENMATTS]

Talk about unfairness, look at poor Isaiah Thomas. Guy is only making chump change in spite of being an All-Star (not our fault, of course). I hope he's getting compensated somehow.

[jmost]

It'll never happen, but it would be great if pro sports could somehow implement a performance-based pay system. Give everyone a base salary and then award bonuses for both team and individual performance. I know it's unrealistic but it really is unfair when some guys are grossly underpaid and some grossly overpaid. A different way to attack the problem would be to take the NFL route and get rid of guaranteed contracts. Make guys earn their money each year.

[jrmzt]

Jul 3, 2016 12:57:13 GMT -5 jmost said:

It'll never happen, but it would be great if pro sports could somehow implement a performance-based pay system. Give everyone a base salary and then award bonuses for both team and individual performance. I know it's unrealistic but it really is unfair when some guys are grossly underpaid and some grossly overpaid. A different way to attack the problem would be to take the NFL route and get rid of guaranteed contracts. Make guys earn their money each year.

agreed. there is the current derrick rose rule which increases a player's pay if he makes the all-star and all-nba teams and that could be expanded on to be a clause for many other players the same way they do in the MLB with bonuses for silver slugger awards, gold glove awards etc.

[FLCeltsFan]

I believe that a lot of players have incentives like that built into their contract. Make All NBA team, Make All Star Game, shoot certain percentages, etc. It's on an individual basis by teams, of course. But I recall Anthony Davis missed out on a big one when he got injured this past season.