Al aboard the Hayward IG Express: Horford follows Gordon on IG, too

I'll admit it, this stuff has officially caught my attention now.

Only question now is if Celtics can convince Jae Crowder to follow Hayward too. pic.twitter.com/mEoczoA8n1

— Chris Forsberg (@ESPNForsberg) June 14, 2017

By "stuff", I mean social media follows of certain key free agency targets meaning more than just easier access to a fellow NBA player's posts. Yesterday, we reported on Isaiah Thomas following (then unfollowing) Utah Jazz wing man Gordon Hayward on Instagram, popularly believed to be the Celts' primary target to sign this offseason in free agency. Today, Chris Forsberg of ESPN alerted the oh-so-recently slumbering NBA media and its consumers Boston Celtics big man Al Horford has climbed on board the IG follow train, and at least for the moment, he's not getting off, either.

I checked Al's IG at about 12:30 EST, and there it was, last followed and still there.

Sure, I hear you saying, this means nothing without a signed contract and a healthy player in uniform and on the parquet, too, and I COMPLETELY agree. This means squat for the big picture plans of the Celts or any other NBA team until a deal is in hand with somebody. But when you start putting all the pieces together - not just the IT4 IG news in the ongoing GH2BOS saga (sorry, I had to get that out), but after the seemingly Celtics-themed baby clothing incident last week and now with Big Al getting in on the action and all, I have to call smoke smoke, and you know what they say about where there's smoke.

#POT #SMOKE See Portland Trailblazer Legend Cliff Robinson At Upcoming The Cannabis Collabora... https://t.co/gfQUoKN1p0 #Weed #Marijuana

— *MR_WEED* ツ (@Cub_Believer) January 21, 2016

No, this isn't the set-up for a Cliff Robinson joke, if that's what you were thinking. I was referring to the age-old adage "when there's smoke, there's fire", though the fire might just turn out to be the role technology is playing in a process as old as the league itself (recruiting players), throwing light on people doing what they need to do in order to be professionally successful at the highest levels, giving us an unintentional window into the process, however tiny of a window it may be. Odds are, these events mean something like this, or even less.

But I'd be lying if I said it hadn't caught my attention.

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