Speaker 1: In the wake of the coronavirus, everyone has had something
Speaker 1: taken away, at least for now. It could be a
Speaker 1: favorite activity or simply a normal sense of security. In
Speaker 1: the case of Al Horford, he's also gotten something back time,
Speaker 1: and not just time in general, but coveted time with
Speaker 1: his wife and kids. Having this time with them, it's
Speaker 1: something that I don't think it would ever happen, so
Speaker 1: it's brought me closer to them. If you like Horford
Speaker 1: and are also living out this crisis with some of
Speaker 1: the people you love the most, you know how fortunate
Speaker 1: you are. Orford has been grinding away at a successful
Speaker 1: All Star career for thirteen years. Last five he's worn
Speaker 1: the three cornered cap of pro baller husband and dad
Speaker 1: every other hour, and I gotta be giving them snacks
Speaker 1: or drinking a lot of water jews like, it's just
Speaker 1: kind of thing. Horford is certainly doing his part to
Speaker 1: stay ready during the NBA's hiatus, sometimes working out twice
Speaker 1: a day, but he's also making sure to make the
Speaker 1: most of a situation he considers a silver line. You'll
Speaker 1: appreciate life a lot more. You want to do good
Speaker 1: to your kids, and you want to be a great
Speaker 1: example for them. This is Posted Up with Al Horford.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the latest installment of Post It Up, presented
Speaker 1: by Caesar's Online, a mini cast series here on the
Speaker 1: broadcast checking in on the seventy six ers during the hiatus,
Speaker 1: with new episodes coming your way every week. I'm Brian Seltzer.
Speaker 1: If you'll bear with me for just a moment, I
Speaker 1: want you to take yourself to a place in your mind,
Speaker 1: that fictional place you probably visited countless times in your childhood,
Speaker 1: or perhaps as the parent of a kid who couldn't
Speaker 1: get enough of the Pride Lands. It's dawn in the
Speaker 1: African desert and an excited young cub is bounding around
Speaker 1: the Royal Lions Dead. He's absolutely relentless, pestering his peacefully
Speaker 1: sleeping pops, jumping on him, nudging him, telling him to
Speaker 1: get up, Get up, Get up. Dad snorts, he groans,
Speaker 1: tries his best to shrug the kid off his back,
Speaker 1: but the kid won't stop. Finally Dad gives him. King
Speaker 1: Mufassa rises reluctantly, and he and his air apparent, Simba,
Speaker 1: set off, ready for the day's adventure. We're alluding, of course,
Speaker 1: to one of the memorable scenes from Disney's classic film
Speaker 1: The Lion Kid, both the original and the recent remake,
Speaker 1: and it was the first image that popped into my
Speaker 1: head when I talked to Al Horford about what life's
Speaker 1: been like in isolation in his Philadelphia partment. He wakes
Speaker 1: up on the early side, and then it is off
Speaker 1: to the races. Man. This squad of three wears you out, man,
Speaker 1: like it really does. Like it's completely different. Horford and
Speaker 1: his wife Ameilia have three children, Ian who's five, Aliyah, three,
Speaker 1: and Ava who's one and a half. During our zoom,
Speaker 1: Ian Horford's oldest is moving in and out of the picture. Sorry,
Speaker 1: got my son here playing around. It's it's it's a
Speaker 1: full time John, especially when you have, you know, younger kids.
Speaker 1: You know, you have the five, the three and the
Speaker 1: one and have like you gotta be constantly watching them
Speaker 1: all the time, especially the one and a half in
Speaker 1: my three year old that the five year old, he's
Speaker 1: a little more independent now, but but just going chasing
Speaker 1: them around and playing with them and entertaining and being aware.
Speaker 1: And it's it's a lot. It's great, but it's definitely
Speaker 1: definitely takes this toll. These are feelings that most parents
Speaker 1: out there right now can probably relate to, especially if
Speaker 1: you've got kids around the same age as Horford's. Here's
Speaker 1: how a typical day goes for the thirty three year old.
Speaker 1: Kids wake me up in the morning, so I'm hanging
Speaker 1: out with them, will have some breakfast, play games with
Speaker 1: them and things like that. And then what I've been
Speaker 1: doing is I usually spend like the morning part with
Speaker 1: them doing around them stuff, playing basketball, We're coloring, we're
Speaker 1: doing different things and uh, and then you know, then
Speaker 1: we put I put him down for an early in
Speaker 1: the afternoon, and then after that I get to work lifting, conditioning.
Speaker 1: You know, I will ahead and get it in. Then
Speaker 1: I try to get a little rest. Then in the evening,
Speaker 1: hang out with them a little more. Really, my wife
Speaker 1: and I just finding things to do for them. Right
Speaker 1: after the kids go down for the night, Horford often
Speaker 1: fits in a second workout well, then sneaking some time
Speaker 1: reading or bitching before calling it one jam pack day.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a cycle. We do it every day.
Speaker 1: It's kind of you know, it's very similar. Since becoming
Speaker 1: a father a little more than five years ago, Horford
Speaker 1: says he's always been conscientious about striking the best possible
Speaker 1: balance between the demands of his job and the demands
Speaker 1: of the home front, kind of dividing. You know, all
Speaker 1: those things all that time, and you know, if I
Speaker 1: have something else that I need to do, if I
Speaker 1: know that I'm going to be gone for a week
Speaker 1: with the team, I just know that I have to
Speaker 1: make sure that I always give, you know, the family
Speaker 1: the time that they need. So like that's something that
Speaker 1: I'm always big on. Obviously, I have to make sure
Speaker 1: that I do my job, that I do it well,
Speaker 1: that I put in all the time, and you know,
Speaker 1: my wife understands that, so it kind of you know,
Speaker 1: I'm able to do everything I need to do, take
Speaker 1: care of my body, do everything, but I always try
Speaker 1: to find time to make for them and spend good
Speaker 1: quality time with my kids. There's no real guidebook to
Speaker 1: mastering the juggling act that Horford subscribing, and you don't
Speaker 1: have to be a professional basketball player to grasp this concept.
Speaker 1: You just have to be a parent or a guardian.
Speaker 1: From my own experience so far in two years as
Speaker 1: a dad, it kind of comes down to figuring out
Speaker 1: how to make things work, which might sound easy, but
Speaker 1: don't be full. I think he's one of the best
Speaker 1: dad that I ever meant. This is a relistornelso the
Speaker 1: understandably proud momb of Al Horford. My dad is amazing.
Speaker 1: My grandpa wasn't amazing that too. I have uncles to that.
Speaker 1: But how is the type of that really cares everything.
Speaker 1: Horford grew up in the Dominican Republic in a household
Speaker 1: with two parents who invested a lot in their own careers.
Speaker 1: His dad, Tito, was a basketball player, while Aurelis was
Speaker 1: a trailblazing sports journalist. Perhaps Horford picked up what seems
Speaker 1: like a natural parenting touch through some kind of osmosis
Speaker 1: in the nvironment. He fits the baby playing together, watching
Speaker 1: maybe some videos or the cartoons together with the kids.
Speaker 1: When they start talking, is around because he won't. They
Speaker 1: learned to speak Spanish, so he's involved in everything, and
Speaker 1: even more so now obviously with the nbac's to suspend
Speaker 1: having this time with them, it's something that I don't
Speaker 1: think it would ever happened. So it's brought me closer
Speaker 1: to them, and I've gotten to know them so much more.
Speaker 1: I mean, I already always made conscious efforts to spend
Speaker 1: time with them. But now it's like, you know, we're
Speaker 1: here and we get to really, you know, spend a
Speaker 1: lot of quality time with them. At first, that might
Speaker 1: sound like a funny thought. How can you get to
Speaker 1: know your kids better? I mean, you're their dad after all, right,
Speaker 1: But again, if you're going through the pandemic with your
Speaker 1: family right now, you probably get what Horford means. You
Speaker 1: just spend so much time around the people in your
Speaker 1: household that you start to pick up on more and more.
Speaker 1: What are some of the things Horford's discovering about his crew.
Speaker 1: They eat a lot, and they eat constantly. I've always
Speaker 1: been around, and I know that there are a certain way,
Speaker 1: but like I feel like they've gotten taller, and it
Speaker 1: seems like they've already grown a couple of inches, but
Speaker 1: they just constantly I'm giving him snacks after they eat.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, I want you know, cereal, I
Speaker 1: want yogurt, I want you know, whether it's water, apple juice,
Speaker 1: like different things like that, But they're constantly eating. That's
Speaker 1: like the one thing that that's been very obvious to
Speaker 1: me since I've been home. Horford's finding his five year
Speaker 1: old is at an age where the two can bond
Speaker 1: over the sport that's long been part of the family pedigree.
Speaker 1: My son is getting into basketball more and more so
Speaker 1: right now, I start watching film and I put one
Speaker 1: of our games on, and he starts shooting immediately on
Speaker 1: his hoop, and then he wants to play against me,
Speaker 1: and he wants to do like the whole game ceremonies
Speaker 1: to jump ball and the free throws and the tie mouths,
Speaker 1: and you know, he's into all that stuff. So now
Speaker 1: my daughters are kind of wanting to get involved. To
Speaker 1: under normal circumstances, there's a pretty good chance that at
Speaker 1: this time of year, Horford's family would still be watching
Speaker 1: him play basketball for real instead of simulating games with
Speaker 1: him around the house. In his first year with the
Speaker 1: seventy Sixers, Horford was on track to make it thirteen
Speaker 1: playoff appearances in thirteen seasons. Just before play stopped in
Speaker 1: the middle of March, his productions started to pick up
Speaker 1: and his role was becoming more defined. The Sixers. They
Speaker 1: go into him, beat, he turns and nobody had Horford
Speaker 1: in a baseline jab. Great play by Al Horford to
Speaker 1: beat with a high low pass at Al Horford with
Speaker 1: a jab the final game before the high against Detroit
Speaker 1: at the Center, Horford put up twenty points, ten rebounds,
Speaker 1: six assists, and two blocks. A vintage Al Horford line
Speaker 1: well as front corp partner Joel Embiid went for thirty
Speaker 1: and fourteen. That was an encouraging son. I was one
Speaker 1: of those games that you know that it was. It
Speaker 1: was statistically and everything and just the way that it
Speaker 1: went and it felt it was probably the best game.
Speaker 1: Horford's well aware of the expectations that surrounded him and
Speaker 1: the seventy sixers heading into this season. One of the
Speaker 1: things I said, what the more games that we all
Speaker 1: get to play together that I think the better things
Speaker 1: will be and we can actually be what those expectations.
Speaker 1: You know, we're from our group. But until Horford and
Speaker 1: the team get a chance to prove that, they'll continue
Speaker 1: taking advantage of all the time he can get with
Speaker 1: his kids being dad, it's just cool. It's really cool.
Speaker 1: They really gravitate towards um, you know, sports and wanting
Speaker 1: to be active, or they see me working out and
Speaker 1: they want to join in and uh, you know, do
Speaker 1: some stretching with me, do some push ups, little things
Speaker 1: like that. So that's the fun part about being an athlete.
Speaker 1: I'm being her dad. This has been posted up with
Speaker 1: Al Horford, presented by Caesar's Online. Be sure to check
Speaker 1: out Lauren Rosen's article about Al that's also part of
Speaker 1: our post It Up Hiatus content series. Thanks to Lauren,
Speaker 1: Christian Crosby, and Telor Moyer for their help producing this episode.
Speaker 1: Our music is courtesy of Universal Production Music and the
Speaker 1: YouTube Audio Library. Next time, we'll post up with Mike
Speaker 1: Scott and Holmatistible has served as a virtual inspiration of sorts.
Speaker 1: We had a zoom call for coach Probablight a week
Speaker 1: and a half ago, and that's how I figured out
Speaker 1: how to make a stupid background and I picked my rook.
Speaker 1: My god man, I'm Brian Seltzer. Thanks for listening. Be
Speaker 1: sure to search seventy six ers podcast network wherever you
Speaker 1: get your pods, and if you've got the time, leave
Speaker 1: us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It helps
Speaker 1: a lot. Talk to you next time. See you're still there,
Speaker 1: just hanging on a few more seconds. Got to talk
Speaker 1: to you about Caesar's Online dot com, our new presenting partner.
Speaker 1: Yeah of our Posted Up content series, which we are
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