Al Horford's Departure From Boston 'Deeper Than Just the Basketball,' But He's Open to Return

The Celtics champion left this summer to join the Golden State Warriors, but he's leaving the door open for one more run with Boston.

Feb 19, 2026; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors center Al Horford (20) shoots over Boston Celtics center Nikola Vucevic (4) during the fourth quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

Al Horford has been here before. He left the Celtics for Philadelphia in 2019, so facing his former teammates in a rival’s uniform isn’t really new. 

But these are guys he’s won a championship with, which made it mean a little bit more. You could tell by how everyone treated him after the game, and the smile on his face during all of it. 

Lotta Celtics postgame hugs for Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis pic.twitter.com/TJBi2DHrOw

— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) February 20, 2026

Horford is too much of a professional to gush about it all, but he acknowledged the surrealness of the moment. 

“It's definitely a weird feeling going through that,” he said after losing to the Celtics. “It was nice to see a lot of the guys …talking to the coaches and the staff and that part. But then once the game got going, it was all business and trying to do our best there.” 

Horford has meant a lot to all of these Celtics. Jayson Tatum has called Horford the best teammate he’s ever had multiple times. Everyone who talks about him does so in glowing terms, and that includes Joe Mazzulla, who was seen after the game seeking out Horford and his son Ean, giving them both long hugs. 

“[I’m] just grateful that I got to coach him,” Mazzulla said. “He's obviously, to me, a Hall of Famer and he's one of the guys when I first got the job that he had my back. And I think that says a lot about who he is as a veteran. … At the end of the day, you say hi to him and his wife and his kids, and you're just grateful for the relationship that you have moving forward.”

It’s assumed that part of why Horford left Boston was the chance to win another championship somewhere while Tatum was recovering from his torn Achilles tendon. Between that and a contract offer Boston couldn't match, it’s presumed Horford looked for a decent fit on a team that could make a deep run. 

Asked about it, Horford was vague about his actual reason for leaving. 

“It's something that's deeper than just the basketball stuff of it,” he said before the game, via CLNS. “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.” 

For now, it’s in Golden State, which has faced its own share of issues. Steph Curry is out with knee soreness and will miss at least another 10 days. Jimmy Butler was lost for the season to a torn ACL, and the Jonathan Kuminga drama made things uncomfortable until the trade deadline. Horford is trying to help his team navigate these tough times and possibly, if they get some injury luck with Curry and the newly acquired Kristaps Porzingis, make a playoff run. 

That's as far as he’s thinking right now. He has a $5.9 million player option next season, which means he can hit the market again if he wants. And he’s open to one more reunion in Boston.

“I always keep that open,” he said. “It would definitely be a privilege to do that, but I'm just obviously just trying to focus on finishing out this year.”