Al Horford

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Al Horford

College	Florida
Sport	Basketball
Position	Power forward/Center
Class	Junior
Nickname	"The Dominican Stallion", "Big Al"
Career	2004 – present
Height	6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)
Weight	245 lb (111 kg)
Nationality	Dominican Republic
Born	June 3, 1986 (age 20) Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
High School	Grand Ledge HS, Grand Ledge, Michigan, USA

Al Horford (born June 3, 1986 in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic) is a college basketball player. He is the son of a former NBA player. He attended Grand Ledge High School in Grand Ledge, Michigan, USA, and was a star player for their basketball team. He is currently a starting center for the Florida Gators basketball team, which won the 2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament on April 2, 2007 and 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament on April 3, 2006, as well as the 2005, 2006, and 2007 SEC Tournaments. Horford would have likely been a top 10 pick in the 2006 Draft, but he and teammates Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer announced at the championship celebration that they would return for their junior season.^[1]

In December of 2006, Horford missed a series of games. Coach Billy Donovan held him out of a game against Stetson University in hopes that he would be adequately healed for a December 23rd showdown in Gainesville against the #3-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. One day before the game, Donovan announced that Horford would be unable to play. Surprisingly, however, Horford entered the game from the bench to guard Ohio State superstar Greg Oden, a highly-touted 7'0" freshman. Horford tried to contain Oden, holding him to just seven points (well below Oden's season average of just over 15). Horford himself scored eleven points, adding eleven rebounds in limited action. The Gators beat the Buckeyes in what is now regarded as not just a great game, but also one of Florida's best-played games at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.

On the final home game of the season, on March 4, 2007 against Kentucky, Al Horford became the fourth on his team to score 1,000 career points, on a free throw in the second half. He needed fourteen points during the game to reach the one thousand mark and scored exactly fourteen points.^[2]

On April 2, 2007, the Gators became the first team to repeat as national champions since the 1991-1992 Duke Blue Devils.