By Rustin Dodd, Stephen J. Nesbitt and Cody Stavenhagen

When Major League Baseball announced a lifetime ban for San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano on Tuesday, the particulars of his wrongdoing were laid out in specific detail: 387 bets placed at legal sportsbooks, 231 wagers related to MLB and 25 on the Pittsburgh Pirates, his employer at the time. He allegedly bet more than $150,000 on baseball.

Marcano was not a particularly savvy bettor; according to MLB, he won just 4.3 percent of his wagers, most of them parlays. But the copious facts released by the league on Tuesday —  the same day Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s ex-interpreter, pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud — underscore a recurring theme as the sports world grapples with more blowback from the precipitous rise of legalized gambling in the United States.

In a majority of states, it’s never been easier to place a bet. But in a world of legal online sportsbooks and smartphones, it’s also never been easier for leagues to track the betting and, as they see it, protect the competitive integrity of the sport. In addition to Marcano’s lifetime ban, MLB announced year-long suspensions for Oakland A’s pitcher Michael Kelly and three minor leaguers — the Padres’ Jay Groome, the Philadelphia Phillies’ José Rodríguez and the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Andrew Saalfrank. All four were found to have placed bets on MLB while in the minors.

The announcement came, according to MLB, after an investigation that included interviews and cooperation from the league’s sportsbook partners, a process that offers a window into the monitoring system in place at legal sportsbooks. That system includes outside firms like U.S. Integrity, a monitoring service that works with major sports leagues and sportsbooks.

“As betting becomes more acceptable and widespread, having these players getting in the sports betting market is dangerous,” said John Wolohan, a sports law professor at Syracuse. “It’s really uncomfortable for the leagues. That said, the leagues are in bed with the DraftKings and the FanDuels of the world anyway, and casinos, so in some ways they’re taking the money and hoping things don’t blow up in their face.”

While leagues like MLB increasingly court gaming partners, they have attempted to implement safeguards to deter athletes, coaches and team or league employees from gambling on their respective sports.

When a bettor — any bettor, for that matter — logs into a betting app, their location is immediately pinned by integrity analysts within a matter of feet. Global positioning is one way of ensuring no athlete can place bets from within a team facility without being caught. There are other methods, too. Social media is monitored closely, and companies use real-time data and proprietary algorithms to monitor betting trends and flag any unusually large line movement. If a troubling trend is spotted, it is generally sent to a person on an investigative team who will look deeper into the matter.

If a case rises to a higher degree of suspicion, a monitoring service alerts both sportsbooks and the league. In some cases, sportsbooks have internal teams watching for abnormal line movement and betting behavior.

U.S Integrity is now part of a joint venture called ProhiBet working to use encryption technology that will prevent athletes, coaches and league officials from placing bets in the first place. In May 2023, the company launched a tip hotline to allow people within the sports world to report gambling suspicions.

U.S. Integrity did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

In the case of Marcano and the other suspended players, MLB said a legal sports betting operator alerted the league in March of past betting activities from accounts connected to major- or minor-league players, none of whom were found to have played in a game on which they bet. A person briefed on the league’s investigation told The Athletic’s Evan Drellich, “This information came to light as a result of a legal sportsbook’s new proactive measures to enforce their policies,” though they did not detail the changes.

Peter Bayer, a former A’s minor league pitcher, went public last year saying he’d been ruled ineligible by MLB since 2021 for betting on baseball. League investigators found that Bayer placed over 100 baseball-related wagers in 2020, including at least 12 on his organization, and accused him of attempting to obstruct the league’s investigation.

Bayer’s bets were first discovered by the Colorado Division of Gaming, which identified him as a prohibited bettor and reported his bets to MLB.

From the perspective of Dan Hartman, who was director of the Colorado Division of Gaming at the time, cases such as Bayer’s are a testament to the collaboration between regulators, law enforcement and leagues.

“We’re not gonna stop incidents like this,” Hartman said last year, but proper oversight allows leagues to address them.

A player placing legal bets under their own name may come with obvious consequences.

“Honestly, in the years I’ve been involved in this, I see it time and time again,” said Steve Paine, co-founder of the advisory firm Evolve Sports Integrity. “It’s those basic checks. You think, if they were trying to do wrongdoing, they’d go out of their way to really hide it — use pseudonyms and fake accounts. But they don’t. They just bet in their own name.”

Leagues and integrity companies, however, are also working to eliminate more complicated occurrences, such as an athlete placing bets through a friend or family member.

In 2020, an independent regulatory commission found former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge guilty of giving his brother inside information about a potential transfer to Sevilla FC. In 2021, Atlético Madrid defender Kieran Trippier served a brief ban for allegedly tipping off friends to his transfer destination. More recently on U.S. soil, it was revealed one of the more than two dozen Iowa and Iowa State athletes penalized for gambling-related offenses used a FanDuel account under his mother’s name.

Last spring, Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon was fired just days after U.S. Integrity flagged suspicious wagering on an Alabama–LSU baseball game made in Cincinnati by a man named Bert Neff. The incident produced a black eye for the NCAA and has since led to criminal charges against Neff, but it also served as a prime example of the sports-gambling machine’s monitoring process working properly and swiftly.

“The system worked,” Louisiana Gaming Control Board chair Ronnie Johns said last year of the Alabama case. “We have to protect the integrity of sports wagering or the system will crater.”

It’s not difficult to imagine a scheme evading the system for some time. Especially if an account isn’t in the name of the prohibited bettor, or someone with the same last name, or if it makes only modest and unalarming wagers. But as time passes sportsbooks, regulators and betting-integrity companies are becoming more streamlined, sophisticated and savvy to new ways bettors are trying to game the system.

“I think it’s always going to be a bit of a cat-and-mouse scenario,” Paine said. “People who are trying to place bets that they’re not supposed to place, they’ll always look for methods to try and disguise that — whether it be betting through family members, or betting through using other third parties, or trying to use technology like VPNs to make bets appear like they’re coming from another country. All of those things exist.”

But the technology used to monitor such activity is not rudimentary. There are ways to identify even those who attempt to find loopholes.

“If they’re using the same iPhone that they used to place the bets when they placed it in their own name two years ago, the companies can find links,” Paine said. “It’s not just the account name. It’s, ‘Was it your home router that you came through when you placed bets? Was it the same device?’ There’s lots of technical data points these sophisticated companies can use to detect fraud.”

A problem leagues face: These safeguards only apply to legally placed bets, not wagers placed through illegal sportsbooks, like in the case of Mizuhara, who admitted to stealing more than $17 million from Ohtani to pay off gambling debts. “Those you’ll never catch,” Wolohan said. “Or you shouldn’t catch, unless there’s a criminal investigation into the bookie.” Mizuhara’s case stemmed from a criminal investigation into the bookmaker believed to be at the center of a Southern California-based gambling ring, Mathew Bowyer.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in a statement Tuesday spoke to the importance of the league’s continued collaboration with regulators and sportsbooks.

“Since the (2018) Supreme Court decision opened the door to legalized sports betting, we have worked with licensed sports betting operators and other third parties to put ourselves in a better position from an integrity perspective through the transparency that a regulated sports betting system can provide,” Manfred said. “MLB will continue to invest heavily in integrity monitoring, educational programming and awareness initiatives with the goal of ensuring strict adherence to this fundamental rule of our game.”

Paine led the UK Gambling Commission’s sports-betting intelligence unit before co-founding a betting-integrity firm that advises the governing bodies of several European and international sports leagues. He recalled hearing an official for an international federation discussing the overarching gambling issue. The official, Paine said, mused that the league could do everything right, and be prepared for every possibility, yet still there would be a small number of bad actors who’d disobey the rules — no matter how robust the education, no matter how diligent the enforcement.

“You can’t prevent everything bad from ever happening,” Paine said. “But when it does, can you identify it? And can you tackle it swiftly, fairly and robustly? I think that’s the key. It’s unrealistic to think any sport is immune to this. Put the right safeguards in place. Take it seriously. Invest in it properly. Work with the stakeholders. And when bad stuff does happen, be prepared for it and tackle it. I think that’s what (MLB) have done here.

“No one wants a big news story like this, but they’ve identified it and dealt with it. I don’t see what stronger message they can send out.”

(Top photo of Marcano: George Kubas / Diamond Images via Getty Images)

Last Friday night in Paris, anyone who was watching Carlos Alcaraz and Sebastian Korda’s night session match on television coverage — and who had also seen the Zendaya tennis film you might have heard of called Challengers — had a dizzying flashback.

A camera from the side of the court suddenly appeared, just above net level, swinging back and forth as the players jostled for control at the net. Barely keeping up with their speed of movement and thought, it veered from side to side, tracking the ball across the clay and down the white lines and coming to a staggering stop as Korda, the American No 27 seed, stopped a vicious strike from No 3 seed Alcaraz dead over the net.

It didn’t have the brazen aestheticism of Challengers director Luca Guadagnino’s work, the camera merging with the ball, but it was a new angle on a sport whose TV coverage does little service to the vicious spin and phenomenal speed that its best players apply to that little fuzzy yellow ball.

Innovation. Fun. A little bit of self-awareness. Everything for which so many of the sport’s obsessive and casual fans cry.

And everything that this technology — a small head camera worn by umpires on the French Open’s show court, Philippe-Chatrier — may not have intended to be.

pic.twitter.com/g00UdtrI27

— BastinoMedia (@BastinoMedia) May 31, 2024

The world of invention is full of products and gadgets intended for one purpose that found their groove with another. 

Bubble wrap was supposed to be three-dimensional wallpaper. Viagra was a new blood pressure medication. The slinky was a surefire way to secure naval instruments in rough seas.

Umpire-Head-Camera, welcome to the ranks of unintended consequences.

Gaining that close-up swivel view was a big part of the thinking when leaders at France’s tennis federation, the FFT, started toying with the idea of a camera perched on the chair umpire more than a year ago. There were visions of never-before-seen footage of forehands zipping over the net at 80mph, so fast they appeared to be dragging the camera with them.

“Let’s face it, they do have the best seat in the stadium,” said Pascal Maria, the assistant referee for the French Open. No one can buy that seat, but the thinking was that they could let the fans experience that view.

From a television perspective, that mostly didn’t go so well. Watching a match on a high-speed swivel from close-up can be a rather nausea-inducing experience for television producers and fans alike. Instead, the technology’s purpose was rerouted to serve a pedestrian, but at Roland Garros, the high purpose: letting everyone see the marks that umpires are looking at when they decide if a ball is in or out.

Even that hasn’t worked great. When umpires climb down from their chairs to inspect ball marks to decide whether their colleagues calling the lines have botched the job, the shot is so fleeting as to be basically useless, partly because the people wearing the cameras are so good — most of the time — at picking them out that they’re looking at them for less than a second.

“Good for playback, slowed down, (but) tough to cut to live,” said Bob Whyley, senior vice president for production and executive producer at the Tennis Channel. “The ref’s head, looking down at the mark, is too quick.”

Andy Murray asked on X whether there was a worse technology in sport. Victoria Azarenka questioned why it was available, but more pedestrian things such as line-calling reviews are not.

Amelie Mauresmo, the tournament director, said officials had scrapped the idea of cutting to the head camera for live-action shots after just a few days. 

“It’s kind of tricky,” she said, but if there are good images, such as a chat with a player or a ball inspection, those would make the replay cut.

The French Open is out on its own in even introducing the cameras, with the other Grand Slams having no plans to bring them in for now. That’s largely because the tournament brought in umpire head cameras to check line calls, but instead, it created a player point-of-view that will go down in tennis lore.

Specifically, the umpire’s view of athletes worth tens of millions of dollars (and more) whining to them like children pleading with a parent who won’t let them have dessert or watch television. 

Without Ump-Head, there is no image of the last French men’s hope Corentin Moutet during his match against world No 2 Jannik Sinner on Wednesday night, pleading for justice with Nico Helwerth, an experienced tennis official from Germany. He was angry that a linesperson had called him for foot-faulting on his favorite shot, the underarm serve.

He was wrong and he didn’t get his justice and the audience got to see what it really feels like to get yelled at by a sweaty, hulking mess who is in a tizzy. Depending on the level of profanity and the decisions of the producers of the telecast, they also get to hear exactly what the umpire and the player are talking about.

The umpire explains his reasoning (Eurosport)

Louise Engzell, a Swedish umpire, said she has found herself feeling like the camera is something of a security blanket, both from players going too far and from commentators inadvertently misrepresenting the conversations they are having with players.

“I prefer that they have the information about what actually happened in a situation: why the chair umpire made this decision, and whether we are 100 percent right or it’s a gray area,” Engzell said in an interview about the cameras during one of many rain delays over the weekend.

At least they know and they can discuss the reality of what happened. It can only be good.”

Point-of-view coverage has been a success in other sports — inviting spectators to better understand the speed, effort and difficulty of what they are watching, which can sometimes be softened by the wide-angle view of a television camera.

During a pre-season match between Aston Villa and Newcastle United last summer, Villa footballer Youri Tielemans wore a camera on his chest, demonstrating the speed of thought that footballers have to demonstrate at the highest level — even in a contest with nothing on the line.

This works most often by making it a standalone view — usually outside of a live broadcast, like Tielemans’ featured video — or relying on a stationary camera, attached to a fixed piece of equipment. In tennis, the court-level camera does a much better job of showing the incredible shape and intensity of players’ ball striking, but it removes the context of angles provided by a wider shot.

It also lacks the extreme shift of a POV camera, which makes a huge difference in helping a momentary replay stand out.

Engzell participated in the first efforts toward outfitting the umpires with cameras at the French Open last year. Jean-Patrick Reydellet, chief of umpires at the French Open, said that involved buying some GoPros and strapping to the umpire’s chests. They didn’t share the footage with television partners but reviewed it after matches. 

The results were not great. Some neat views of the court, but the angle didn’t quite work. Also, umpires don’t move their chests very much, so there was a lot of footage of the top of the net and the touch screen the umpire operates. 

Engzell said the chest camera also made for an awkward setup for female umpires.

Reydellet and his staff evaluated the cameras that officials wear in the NBA, rugby and other sports. The ear setup seemed like the best one. Umpires who were willing tried them out during the qualifying tournament two weeks ago and gave the thumbs up, especially after they saw how the camera could show exactly how they inspected a ball mark to see if it landed on the line, by following its outline from the clay to compete its circumference.

Corentin Moutet pleads his case, with the umpire camera visible (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

That hasn’t really worked out. Part of the reason is that the umpires only need to take a glance, which this leaves the viewer with a disorienting head wobble and little else. It also doesn’t “sell” the decision to fans and players very well — a problem that football has experienced with video assistant referee (VAR) when officials change a decision without looking at it themselves.

“It is a camera that obviously needs to get better,” Reydellet said. “Probably smaller, probably long-life batteries, probably different settings that we can work on.”

Part of the goal is also to show how complex the job is. The French Open wants to use the footage to teach aspiring umpires, to give viewers a sense of everything a player has to do, and to add a new layer of transparency to the umpiring process and its myriad tasks.

In an interview, Helwerth enumerated the checklist he performs on every point.

Check if the receiver is ready, if the ball kids are in position, if the line judges are where they are supposed to be, deactivate the serve clock, after having just turned it on, enter the last point on the tablet, check the crowd. When it’s over, take a glance at the loser of the point to make sure they’re behaving. If they come over to talk, switch off the stadium microphone — but not the head cam, of course — then make sure to turn it back on.

“We’re not bored up there,” he said.

For this year, the cameras are only in use on the main court, but it’s hard to not see them moving to other courts in the future, especially after one umpire inspected the wrong ball mark to rule on a point on Court Simonne-Mathieu in a match between Zheng Qinwen and Elina Avanesyan.

Maybe next year, someone watching a monitor underneath the stadium could yell into a transmitter: “No, not that one!”

That would be nice. Not as nice as the shot of Moutet.

(Top photo: Eurosport)

BOSTON — With two minutes left until halftime of a second-round closeout game, Al Horford spotted a loose ball deep in the right corner. The Boston Celtics led the Cleveland Cavaliers by five points with a chance to advance to the Eastern Conference finals, but Horford believed his team lacked energy. He wanted to lift everyone.

As the ball headed toward the Boston bench, Horford engaged in a race against two visible threats: Dean Wade and the out-of-bounds line. A third threat, which Horford first committed to fighting off early in his career, went unseen. Horford turned 38 on June 3 and has long engaged in a competition against Father Time.

Horford won the race against Wade for a rebound and saved the possession by throwing the ball off the Cavaliers forward. As the Boston bench rose to let Horford know the value of his hustle, fans inside TD Garden roared.

It was nothing new for Horford to deliver a timely play in a big game, but savoring such moments seems wise these days. No matter how hard he tries to preserve his physical gifts, his body eventually will break down.

Though his longevity receives attention because of his continued status as a key piece on a title contender, it has taken him decades of work to reach this point of his career, still with so much left to give the game.

Horford’s on-court presence is a feat. Now wrapping up his 17th season, he is one of only five players left from the 2007 NBA Draft. Only six players older than Horford logged minutes this season. In that group, only LeBron James, Chris Paul and Kyle Lowry were regulars in team rotations.

In a league with enough skill and 3-point shooting to punish some of the best defensive centers, Horford was the oldest NBA big man to receive nightly playing time. To date, he has dodged the factors that can derail a career — injuries, wear and tear and off-court issues.

Horford will enter the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks ranked 98th all-time in regular-season minutes played and 26th all-time in postseason minutes played. His teammates marvel at not just the way he still performs, but also how he has set himself up to do so.

Jayson Tatum, who says Horford stays in “perfect shape,” has stolen parts of the veteran’s daily routine. Payton Pritchard, whose locker sits next to Horford’s at the Celtics practice facility and TD Garden, says he watches everything Horford does to pick up how to approach the game. Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, two years younger than Horford, calls it an honor to coach a player like him. On a roster loaded with hard-working veterans, Horford is the role model for other role models.

Horford has gone to great lengths to postpone the inevitable. Long before age started to diminish him physically, Horford began working toward this type of sustained success. Even before he considered playing this many years in the NBA a realistic possibility, he paid close attention to the work habits of elite athletes. He picked the brains of NBA legends. He worked briefly with Alex Guerrero, Tom Brady’s longtime fitness and nutrition advisor and co-founder of TB12, their injury prevention company. He also sought advice from Brady himself.

If the Celtics go on to win the championship this season, it would come in no small part due to Horford’s ability to hold off the effects of age.

“It’s funny,” the five-time NBA All-Star said, “because I feel like everybody has been talking about me being old since I was, like, 23 years old. Because I was already thinking ahead, thinking team, thinking all these other things (about the future), and that’s just who I am.”

Horford picked up a nickname during his freshman season at the University of Florida: The Godfather. At 18, he was already no-nonsense.

“He just had this ability to lead,” said Duke Werner, the men’s basketball athletic trainer at Florida and now the school’s assistant athletic director for sports health. “The way he went about his business, he was just very professional at a young age.”

In the early 2000s, the Gators already were prioritizing recovery for their athletes. Under Werner and head coach Billy Donovan, it was mandatory for players to receive recovery treatments after each practice. Among the options were massage therapy, cryotherapy and flexibility programs.

Werner emphasized these activities were crucial — and not just on the days the players were feeling less than their best. For teenagers, the importance of proper physical maintenance doesn’t always come easily. But for Horford, who had watched his father, Tito, take great care of himself throughout a long professional basketball career that included 63 games over three NBA seasons, the message sank in quickly.

“What set Al apart a little bit on that was his curiosity about how to stay healthy and how to be the best that he could be,” Werner said. “At that age, a lot of guys aren’t doing that. There are a lot of other things they’re worried about other than trying to stay healthy.”

When Horford arrived on campus as the 47th-ranked recruit, Werner and Donovan discussed the need for him to improve his lateral quickness and explosiveness. They believed his body was too stiff. Horford took the message to heart.

He averaged 22.8 minutes per game as a freshman on a team that starred Anthony Roberson, David Lee and Matt Walsh. While finishing a respectable 24-8 in 2004-05, the Gators were building the foundation of a team that would go on to win back-to-back national championships.

Horford and his recruiting class, which included Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer, took over the reins of the team the following season. At practices, Florida did an injury prevention program before stretching.

According to Werner, the players went through four stations, which included ankle and lower back work. For a while, Werner and Donovan believed Horford and Brewer were too lax in their attitude during that portion of practice. Eventually, Werner and Donovan called the two players into the office.

“From then on, boy, Horf was serious,” Werner said.

Horford said Werner’s advice convinced him to take better care of his body. During a three-year career at Florida, he only missed two games. Werner remembered Horford only had one injury during his time at the school.

“I had a high ankle sprain,” Horford said, “and I kind of played through it.”

The Godfather approached everything from the film room to the weight room with great diligence. After winning the national title as sophomores, Horford, Noah, Brewer and Taurean Green returned to Florida and did it again as juniors. In the summer of 2007, those four plus teammate Chris Richard were selected in the NBA Draft.

“They all played in the NBA,” Werner said. “We always kind of had a guess that he would probably stick around (the NBA) the longest. We always thought with his maturity level that he would be the guy still playing.”

Werner’s lessons stuck with Horford, who named the trainer as one of the reasons for his NBA longevity. The curiosity to learn more about what worked best for his body never left.

Horford with the Florida Gators in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. (Elsa / Getty Images)

In 2015, near the end of a day with Guerrero at the TB12 training facility, Horford saw Brady walk into the gym. It was during the summer, the depths of the NFL offseason. Still, Brady looked game-ready.

“He was already so locked in,” Horford said.

In Atlanta, where Horford played at the time, the Hawks medical staff was changing. The transition helped convince Horford to look for training support elsewhere. Horford wanted to explore the TB12 program after seeing Brady’s commitment to his nutrition and lifestyle. Before the 2015-16 season, he visited the facility in Foxborough, Mass., to undergo testing and learn, from Guerrero, some of Brady’s tricks.

Horford also investigated the approaches of other elite athletes, including Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James. If he found something that would benefit him, he pursued it. In his 20s, he reached out to Manu Ginóbili and Vince Carter — two NBA All-Stars who played into their 40s — for advice.

“They all preach very similar things — treatment and staying after and being committed,” Horford said. “For me, honestly, I feel like a lot of guys my age try to do all those things as we understand the importance of it.”

Horford first hired a personal chef during his second season in the NBA. His current chef has been with him for 10 years. She’s moved from city to city — including two stops in Boston — all to work with him. At this point, Horford said, she’s family.

“She’s connected with the team, as well,” Horford said. “She’s very conscious of everything that I need to be eating, how I should eat before the game, how I should eat postgame, how I should eat the next day for recovery, and just making sure that we’re maximizing and eating as clean as we can. It’s all things that are going to help me perform better, foods are going to put me in the best position.”

Outside of his diet, Horford continued to hunt additional ways to maximize his physical gifts. After learning about Brady’s unique style of preparation, Horford wanted to discover more.

Why?

“For me,” Horford said, “it’s just Tom.”

At TB12, according to Guerrero, Horford wanted to focus on two areas: injury prevention and a position-specific workout regimen that would allow him to flourish for years to come. Still in his 20s, he was already thinking about the shifting NBA game. During the 2015-16 season, Horford started shooting 3-pointers regularly for the first time. He also wanted to change his body to keep up with the new demands of his position.

“We talked about, what is your ultimate playing weight based off your position?” Guerrero said. “At your position, what does that entail? Do you need to move? Is it more based on speed or quickness, quickness or power and strength? Once he began to define that for himself and his position, you can make a customizable program for him that’s based on what he’s looking to achieve.”

Some of the lessons were scientific. Guerrero emphasized that Horford’s body would undergo a physiological shift every five years and he would need to adapt his program according to his body’s new reality. The quicker he adjusted to the changes, essentially by retraining his brain and body, the easier it would be to achieve longevity.

“The idea was being able to play and continue to do what you love doing for as long as you want,” Guerrero said. “We talked at the very beginning that the game should never take it away from you. You should be able to leave on your terms.”

While Horford was at the facility, he and Brady discussed a wide range of topics, including nutrition, hydration and workout regimens. During the conversation, Brady, whose extraordinarily strict diet has been well publicized, emphasized that what worked for him wouldn’t necessarily work for everyone else.

“For me, it was, like, how can I fit that into my lifestyle?” Horford said, adding that his diet was never as strict as Brady’s. “How can I take some of this stuff and use it to my benefit?”

As much as anyone, Brady valued his time. Guerrero considered that crucial for any professional athlete whose time is limited because they are pulled in so many directions. Everything Brady did had a purpose.

“Your workouts are purpose-specific,” Guerrero said. “Your diet is purpose-specific. Your recovery is purpose-specific. All with the goal of making sure you maximize the time that you have in a given day.”

Horford said the most lasting lesson that day came from witnessing Brady’s focus, determination and commitment to the everyday process.

“I’ve never seen somebody so present, period,” Horford said. “I feel like a lot of the times, we’re always thinking about different things or thinking ahead or thinking whatever. And he was just very, very, very, very in the moment. That was something that really stuck with me.”

Like Tom Brady, Horford is hoping to bring a championship to Boston. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

At the Celtics practice facility in early February, hours before a game against James’ Lakers, Horford raved about the way the 39-year-old has adjusted his game with age. It seemed telling that Horford, who understands the physical investment James has made over the years, focused more on James’ ability to adapt over time.

These days, Horford said, James is more likely to let one of his teammates take control of the offense while he works off the ball.

“It’s not easy to adjust to the game,” Horford said.

Horford should know. Not many players in this generation have done it better. He didn’t attempt 10 3-pointers in a single season until the seventh season of his career, but he eventually became a knockdown outside shooter because he saw where the game was headed and what he would need to survive in it.

After shooting 44.6 percent on 3-point attempts last season, he followed by hitting 41.9 percent on such attempts this season. With modifications to his game, he has found new ways to make an impact even as some of his athleticism wanes.

Fun fact: Al Horford has a 62.5 3P% in the Finals in his career (15 for 24).

That’s the best 3P% in Finals history among all players with at least 20 3PA. pic.twitter.com/kvxBUymA7B

— StatMuse (@statmuse) June 4, 2024

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Years ago, Danny Ainge predicted Horford would be the rare star able to thrive in a smaller role late in his career. During Horford’s second season with the Celtics, Ainge was told the big man could potentially play until 40. It was the first time Horford had considered playing so long.

“Danny Ainge is the one that put that in my head a little bit,” Horford said.

Ainge believed in the possibility for several reasons: He embraced a clean lifestyle. He possessed an adaptable game, a healthy body and the right mentality.

“He’s a versatile player,” Ainge said. “He may not be the same player at 40 that he is at 32, but he’s gonna be able to still contribute, and that’s part of it. It’s not just the body part, but the mental part. I think Al has the humility to just play a lesser role and be part of a team.”

Horford accepted a sixth-man role this season for the first time in his career. He attempted a career-low 6.4 field goals per game during the regular season. The Celtics utilized him primarily as a floor spacer, not the offensive hub he used to be.

To preserve his body, he sat out one leg of regular season back-to-backs. He still prepared to handle large minutes when necessary. That need arrived early in the playoffs when Kristaps Porziņģis suffered a calf injury during Game 3 of the Celtics’ first-round series against Miami.

With Porziņģis missing every game since, Horford slid into the starting lineup. The first unit with him in has blasted opponents by 18 points per 100 possessions through Boston’s first 14 postseason games. The Celtics have been 12.7 points better per 100 possessions with Horford on the court during the playoffs.

Though he had some trouble stopping Donovan Mitchell in the second round against the Cavaliers, he consistently shut down Darius Garland on switches during the closeout game of that series. To help lead a Game 3 comeback win against the Pacers one round later, Horford drilled seven 3-pointers, blocked three shots and grabbed three offensive rebounds.

To Horford’s teammates, it’s no secret why he’s still a major factor in his 17th season, or why, in a league where many big men get played off the court deep in the playoffs, he never has. Before games, Horford can be seen using resistance bands to stretch each of his big toes for several minutes. There is no body part too small to strengthen or exercise too monotonous to adopt.

Horford doesn’t take days off. When the Celtics don’t have practice or a game, he said he typically does some sort of cardio exercise, 30 to 40 minutes of stretching, soft tissue work if needed, weight training if he’s due for it, and, “as much as I can,” an additional workout on the court.

“Doing that, to me, it’s important,” Horford said. “If I can, I like just getting outside, getting out in the sun preferably. I feel like it does help me, so that’s what I do. I don’t have a super elaborate (off-day schedule), but I do make sure that I’m being productive on the off days.”

Horford has long thought about his future. How much longer does he hope to play?

“My whole thing has always been this: as long as I feel good physically,” Horford said in February. “I don’t want to feel limited. I don’t want to be not myself out there. So, I don’t want to put a limit on it. And that’s the one thing that I saw from Tom (Brady), one of the things I took from him that I thought was great. Just listening to interviews with him and things like that, he never put a limit on when he was going to play, and I don’t want to limit myself with that.”

With the NBA Finals starting Thursday in Boston, Horford is four wins away from what would be the first championship in his illustrious career. The Mavericks, led by Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving, will test his defense. His ability to withstand their attacks and occupy Dallas’ rim protectors on the other end of the court could help decide the series, especially if Porziņģis is limited.

Horford will be ready for the challenge.

“I feel like I’ve prepared my body and myself to be in this position,” he said. “And even though it’s hard, it’s something I welcome.”