ESPN ranks Horford in Top 20 in the NBA

[Jamaaliver]

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9144675/#nbarank-player-ratings-16-20

The comeback season for AL Horford just keeps getting better.

He (currently) leads our team in Points, Rebounds, FG%, PER, Double-Doubles.
He's on one of the most economical contracts in the league today.
He is the unequivocal face of the franchise.

He's a two-time All Star. He's already been selected to an All-NBA team (and will likely garner a selection again this year).

Now ESPN ranks him as the 20th best player in the NBA based on rankings assigned by a panel of NBA analysts, bloggers, etc.

Now, obviously these rankings are subjective, but it's awful nice for the hometown team to receive some positive press and recognition at this time of year.

2011 ESPN Ranking: 25
2012 ESPN Ranking: 30 (after the injury)
2013 ESPN Ranking: 20

For the end of the season, ESPN has a special edition of its NBA Rank going. After ranking 30th last year, Al Horford has now cracked the top 20.

For Horford, this should be seen as a huge success. It shows that he is getting more and more national recognition, and has truly taken over as the face of the Atlanta franchise. And even then, you can still easily argue that he is underrated.

http://hawkshoop.com/

[MaceCase]

"I don't see it as impressive, he's just thriving off of the attention that Josh and Jeffrey are garnering and living off of the looks they spoon feed him"

-some random poster

[Jamaaliver]

"I don't see it as impressive, he's just thriving off of the attention that Josh and Jeffrey are garnering and living off of the looks they spoon feed him"

-some random poster

What's weird is that we used to complain about Joe because he played so much isolation basketball.

Now we have actual team play resulting in Horford receiving national acclaim and recognition, and so many Hawk fans try to minimize the accomplishments.

Dude is a hard working, talented, big man. (His jumper is so deadly.) The best we've had since Mutombo left.

And to think, our new GM almost traded 3 years of Horford for 9 months of an injured Dwight Howard.

[jagstang76]

I've been a huge Horford fan and am really excited about this ranking. He really is the best player on this team. I don't know that he's good enough to put his team on his back and win big games, but I do think that he more than makes up for JJ. He really needs to have a good big next to him to make his job easier on defense and free him up on offense. I'm really looking forward to what Ferry is going to add to this team.

[ATL Boy]

I love the recognition that Al is getting, not only does he deserve it for all the work he's put in but also this'll be great for us when recruiting Free Agents

[parson]

The critics have it backwards: defenders run away from Smith, hoping he'll shoot.