And so, Boston Celtics fans, I ask this question this morning as the New Jersey Nets prepare to hand him the key to their basketball Rolls:

What if Kyrie Irving was the solution and not the problem?

New England basketball fans are trusting sorts – you know, In Brad we trust; in Danny we trust, etc.

Heck, we even trusted that dastardly Kyrie when he told us he’d love to be here if we’d have him.

The narrative has since changed – dramatically (the author understated!) – as it turns out we don’t want the six-time all-star and two-time All-NBA selection.

He’s nothing short of basketball evil, and he’s one of those “flat-earth” crackpots, too.

But what if it wasn’t Kyrie? Where is this franchise now?

The pivotal witness in this case could be Horford, who was guaranteed $32 million this winter, passed on that and bounced to Philly for four years at $97 million ($109 with championship-driven incentives).

That number, $32 million, is huge. The Celtics were on the hook.

Basically, add three years to that at Terry Rozier dough, and theoretically, Horford would have stayed, right?

Therein lies the speculation, though. Horford wouldn’t have stayed. He wanted out, and Kyrie wasn’t around to blame.

What does Al Horford know that we in New England choose not to know?

The Celtics’ company line tells us Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are budding superstars. Not just stars, superstars.

I believe the “Next Kawhi” (Brown) and the “Next Kobe” (Tatum) have been mumbled around these parts once or a thousand times.

Horford, by his actions, told us all what Chuck D and Flavor Flav preached in 1988 (Google it, kids) … “Don’t Believe the Hype.” I’m tempted to trust Al’s assessment. I mean the guy spent nine years in Atlanta.

Horford knows overrated talent when he sees it, read here, Joe Johnson.

And what if it’s worse than just the fact that Brown and Tatum aren’t as good as we think.

In my younger days, when the boys and I would head out on vacation, we’d set odds on the first “confrontation quiniela.”

The second name in the equation varied from man to man, but to a guy, it was always, “Mike and ….”

Mike and Dave. Mike and Chris. Mike and Hector.

Check out the Celtics’ confrontations over the past 12 months, on court, on social media, anywhere.

It wasn’t always, “Kyrie and …” But Brown was involved in nearly every little dust-up.

Al Horford chose Philly, knowing Jimmy Butler wasn’t sticking around and neither was JJ Redick.

He picked a point guard (Ben Simmons) who can’t shoot outside of six feet from the hoop and a giant of a man (Joel Embiid) who often chooses not to shoot from inside of 20 feet over our Celtics.

Again, much of the evidence is conjecture at worst and circumstantial at best. Still, you should be worried.

This is a basketball court, not a court of law. And the Celtics might be in deep trouble.

Just ask Al.

Contact Hector Longo at 594-1253 or hlongo@nashuatelegraph.com.

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