Al Horford gives well wishes from afar to an up and coming Boston big man

Perhaps the biggest hit the Boston Celtics took this offseason was losing all-star Al Horford in free agency. With the looming departure of Kyrie Irving inbound, it seemed Horford jumped really quick at the opportunity to make money on a highly talented team thinking that the Celtics' contending days were over for the time being. It's still unclear if Horford had known anything about the Kemba Walker situation and whether or not he would have stayed and worked something out if he did.

However, even though he won't be suiting up in green next season, Horford's impressive leadership qualities still shine as he continues to reach out in support of the young and upcoming Celtics.

All-star big man Al Horford left the Celtics in free agency this past summer and signed a deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. Photo via Maddie Meyer

Speaking to MassLive after practice on Tuesday, 21-year-old Boston big man Robert Williams III let them know how much Horford's leadership meant to him and that Al reached out to let him know that his future was bright in the league, saying that he was destined to blossom and that he looked forward to facing off with him in their future matchups.

Having to travel back and forth between the Celtics and the Red Claws last year, Williams only got to participate in a total of 32 games in which he averaged just under 9 minutes of play during Boston's mess of a season. However, I personally believe he made extremely valuable use of those limited minutes and although he still has a lot of development to go through, he showed an immense amount of potential towards becoming an effective big in today's NBA.


As I said before, having Horford in Philadelphia now is definitely a negative in more ways than one, but this opens a massive window of opportunity for Williams to step up and fill a role that the Celtics desperately need. I certainly think he is capable of doing it at some point in the near future, and I look forward to seeing what he can do with the minutes he needed last season for growth.

But what do you think??? Do you agree with Horford in terms of Williams' potential??? What do you think he will achieve as player this year??? Let me know in the comments down below.

You can follow Thomas Desmond on Twitter @td_654.