Posted Up! | Al Horford

it's brought me closer to them. If you like Horford and are also living out this crisis with some of the people you love the most, you know how fortunate you are. Orford has been grinding away at a successful All Star career for thirteen years. Last five he's worn the three cornered cap of pro baller husband and dad every other hour, and I gotta be giving them snacks or drinking a lot of water jews like, it's just

kind of thing. Horford is certainly doing his part to stay ready during the NBA's hiatus, sometimes working out twice a day, but he's also making sure to make the most of a situation he considers a silver line. You'll appreciate life a lot more. You want to do good to your kids, and you want to be a great example for them. This is Posted Up with Al Horford.

Welcome to the latest installment of Post It Up, presented by Caesar's Online, a mini cast series here on the broadcast checking in on the seventy six ers during the hiatus, with new episodes coming your way every week. I'm Brian Seltzer. If you'll bear with me for just a moment, I want you to take yourself to a place in your mind, that fictional place you probably visited countless times in your childhood, or perhaps as the parent of a kid who couldn't

get enough of the Pride Lands. It's dawn in the African desert and an excited young cub is bounding around the Royal Lions Dead. He's absolutely relentless, pestering his peacefully sleeping pops, jumping on him, nudging him, telling him to get up, Get up, Get up. Dad snorts, he groans, tries his best to shrug the kid off his back, but the kid won't stop. Finally Dad gives him. King Mufassa rises reluctantly, and he and his air apparent, Simba,

set off, ready for the day's adventure. We're alluding, of course, to one of the memorable scenes from Disney's classic film The Lion Kid, both the original and the recent remake, and it was the first image that popped into my head when I talked to Al Horford about what life's been like in isolation in his Philadelphia partment. He wakes up on the early side, and then it is off to the races. Man. This squad of three wears you out, man,

like it really does. Like it's completely different. Horford and his wife Ameilia have three children, Ian who's five, Aliyah, three, and Ava who's one and a half. During our zoom, Ian Horford's oldest is moving in and out of the picture. Sorry, got my son here playing around. It's it's it's a full time John, especially when you have, you know, younger kids.

You know, you have the five, the three and the one and have like you gotta be constantly watching them all the time, especially the one and a half in my three year old that the five year old, he's a little more independent now, but but just going chasing them around and playing with them and entertaining and being aware. And it's it's a lot. It's great, but it's definitely definitely takes this toll. These are feelings that most parents out there right now can probably relate to, especially if

you've got kids around the same age as Horford's. Here's how a typical day goes for the thirty three year old. Kids wake me up in the morning, so I'm hanging out with them, will have some breakfast, play games with

them and things like that. And then what I've been doing is I usually spend like the morning part with them doing around them stuff, playing basketball, We're coloring, we're doing different things and uh, and then you know, then we put I put him down for an early in the afternoon, and then after that I get to work lifting, conditioning. You know, I will ahead and get it in. Then I try to get a little rest. Then in the evening, hang out with them a little more. Really, my wife

and I just finding things to do for them. Right after the kids go down for the night, Horford often fits in a second workout well, then sneaking some time reading or bitching before calling it one jam pack day. It's kind of like a cycle. We do it every day. It's kind of you know, it's very similar. Since becoming a father a little more than five years ago, Horford says he's always been conscientious about striking the best possible balance between the demands of his job and the demands

of the home front, kind of dividing. You know, all those things all that time, and you know, if I have something else that I need to do, if I know that I'm going to be gone for a week with the team, I just know that I have to make sure that I always give, you know, the family the time that they need. So like that's something that

I'm always big on. Obviously, I have to make sure that I do my job, that I do it well, that I put in all the time, and you know, my wife understands that, so it kind of you know, I'm able to do everything I need to do, take care of my body, do everything, but I always try to find time to make for them and spend good

quality time with my kids. There's no real guidebook to mastering the juggling act that Horford subscribing, and you don't have to be a professional basketball player to grasp this concept. You just have to be a parent or a guardian. From my own experience so far in two years as a dad, it kind of comes down to figuring out how to make things work, which might sound easy, but don't be full. I think he's one of the best dad that I ever meant. This is a relistornelso the

understandably proud momb of Al Horford. My dad is amazing. My grandpa wasn't amazing that too. I have uncles to that. But how is the type of that really cares everything. Horford grew up in the Dominican Republic in a household with two parents who invested a lot in their own careers. His dad, Tito, was a basketball player, while Aurelis was a trailblazing sports journalist. Perhaps Horford picked up what seems like a natural parenting touch through some kind of osmosis

in the nvironment. He fits the baby playing together, watching maybe some videos or the cartoons together with the kids. When they start talking, is around because he won't. They learned to speak Spanish, so he's involved in everything, and even more so now obviously with the nbac's to suspend having this time with them, it's something that I don't think it would ever happened. So it's brought me closer to them, and I've gotten to know them so much more.

I mean, I already always made conscious efforts to spend time with them. But now it's like, you know, we're here and we get to really, you know, spend a lot of quality time with them. At first, that might sound like a funny thought. How can you get to know your kids better? I mean, you're their dad after all, right, But again, if you're going through the pandemic with your

family right now, you probably get what Horford means. You just spend so much time around the people in your household that you start to pick up on more and more. What are some of the things Horford's discovering about his crew.

They eat a lot, and they eat constantly. I've always been around, and I know that there are a certain way, but like I feel like they've gotten taller, and it seems like they've already grown a couple of inches, but they just constantly I'm giving him snacks after they eat. It's like, you know, I want you know, cereal, I want yogurt, I want you know, whether it's water, apple juice,

like different things like that, But they're constantly eating. That's like the one thing that that's been very obvious to me since I've been home. Horford's finding his five year old is at an age where the two can bond over the sport that's long been part of the family pedigree.

My son is getting into basketball more and more so right now, I start watching film and I put one of our games on, and he starts shooting immediately on his hoop, and then he wants to play against me, and he wants to do like the whole game ceremonies to jump ball and the free throws and the tie mouths, and you know, he's into all that stuff. So now

my daughters are kind of wanting to get involved. To under normal circumstances, there's a pretty good chance that at this time of year, Horford's family would still be watching him play basketball for real instead of simulating games with him around the house. In his first year with the seventy Sixers, Horford was on track to make it thirteen playoff appearances in thirteen seasons. Just before play stopped in the middle of March, his productions started to pick up

and his role was becoming more defined. The Sixers. They go into him, beat, he turns and nobody had Horford in a baseline jab. Great play by Al Horford to beat with a high low pass at Al Horford with a jab the final game before the high against Detroit at the Center, Horford put up twenty points, ten rebounds, six assists, and two blocks. A vintage Al Horford line well as front corp partner Joel Embiid went for thirty and fourteen. That was an encouraging son. I was one

of those games that you know that it was. It was statistically and everything and just the way that it went and it felt it was probably the best game. Horford's well aware of the expectations that surrounded him and the seventy sixers heading into this season. One of the things I said, what the more games that we all get to play together that I think the better things will be and we can actually be what those expectations.

You know, we're from our group. But until Horford and the team get a chance to prove that, they'll continue taking advantage of all the time he can get with his kids being dad, it's just cool. It's really cool. They really gravitate towards um, you know, sports and wanting to be active, or they see me working out and they want to join in and uh, you know, do some stretching with me, do some push ups, little things like that. So that's the fun part about being an athlete.

I'm being her dad. This has been posted up with Al Horford, presented by Caesar's Online. Be sure to check out Lauren Rosen's article about Al that's also part of our post It Up Hiatus content series. Thanks to Lauren, Christian Crosby, and Telor Moyer for their help producing this episode. Our music is courtesy of Universal Production Music and the YouTube Audio Library. Next time, we'll post up with Mike Scott and Holmatistible has served as a virtual inspiration of sorts.

We had a zoom call for coach Probablight a week and a half ago, and that's how I figured out how to make a stupid background and I picked my rook. My god man, I'm Brian Seltzer. Thanks for listening. Be sure to search seventy six ers podcast network wherever you get your pods, and if you've got the time, leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It helps a lot. Talk to you next time. See you're still there,

just hanging on a few more seconds. Got to talk to you about Caesar's Online dot com, our new presenting partner. Yeah of our Posted Up content series, which we are totally excited about and really appreciative of that. During this time, Caesar's Online has come on board. What is Caesars online dot com. It's the newest gaming experience in Pennsylvania. You can play your favorite slot and roulette games and essentially bring the casino home to you. Caesars Online dot Com

is the number one online casino gaming destination. Visit Caesars online dot com today for real money gaming in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. You must be twenty one or over to gamble, and if you've got a gambling problem, called one eight hundred gambler