AL HORFORD SNAGGED the rebound near the 3-point line as the clock ticked down, the score tied at 54. It was March 23, 2007. On the other end, the 6-foot-9 forward backed down a defender who was four inches shorter than him and 20 pounds lighter. As he drew closer to the basket, the whistle blew, and Horford softly laid the ball in the basket. With 2:34 left, Horford nailed the free throw, giving his Florida Gators a lead they wouldn’t relinquish in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
On the sideline, Brad Stevens, then an assistant coach with the Butler Bulldogs, couldn’t believe the call. He still can’t now, 17 years later.
“It was a charge,” Stevens told ESPN.
“It could’ve gone either way,” Horford told ESPN.
The Bulldogs, an underdog mid-major, were facing a top-seeded Gators squad seeking to repeat as national champions. The Gators boasted five future NBA players, including Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Horford, while the Bulldogs possessed zero top-100 recruits.
Entering the game, Stevens considered Horford the Gators’ best player, a handful in the lane with a soft-shooting touch from midrange. And Horford viewed the Bulldogs as one of the best-coached teams his Gators had faced. Florida prevailed behind Horford’s effort — 16 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks and 2 assists — and cruised to a second straight title.
At the time, the contest seemed little more than a fierce game in the furnace of March Madness, but, as years passed, and as both Horford and Stevens reached the NBA, it would come to represent something more: the beginning of an unlikely bond. For years, Stevens and Horford admired each other from afar as their professional paths wound through the league, sharing deep respect for the other and their ideals about the game. They separately imagined a partnership.
Now in Boston, they each stand two wins away from their first NBA championship.
A title for the 38-year-old Horford — the oldest player remaining in the playoffs — would punctuate a 17-year NBA résumé and honor his impactful postseason run, during which the Celtics hold a +13.6 net efficiency with Horford on the floor, the best among 100-plus players to average 20 minutes per game this postseason. It would also end a painful…
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