If you think about it, the Sixers are running out of bell ringers.

They’ve exhausted their list of candidates, from Philadelphia Eagles to former Sixers, UFC fighters and M Night Shymalan. Who could they possibly turn to Wednesday night during to kick off the regular season?

They turned to an active player for the first time, handing the hammer to Al Horford, who was debuting at home against his former club, the Boston Celtics. It was a combination troll job and symbolic gesture.

“They came up to me (Tuesday) and asked me (to ring it),” Horford told reporters after the game. “I said yeah and then I got some instructions there on how to do it. It was a very cool moment. I really really enjoyed it, it was special.”

A nice moment for the 33 year old, who seemed happy to put the Boston reunion in the rear view mirror.


“It’s still very weird for me. It felt good to go out and get a win. It’s finally over. A lot of emotions leading up to this, so I’m happy we came out, competed, and were able to get this first win.”

Horford didn’t have an amazing shooting night, going 5-13 from the field and 1-6 from three. He did finish 5-6 from the foul line while adding three assists and a steal and just giving the Sixers another big body on the defensive end, where the Sixers thrived in the 14-point win.

“Yeah, that’s one of the things that coach has challenged us to be right now,” explained Horford. “Be a top five defensive team, with the kind of length that we have, you know. It felt like Joel was great covering for us in the back tonight, and J Rich had a tough assignment with a guy like Kemba, but those two guys were outstanding defensively.”

NBA Stats shows Horford with 12 contested two pointers and three contested three pointers on the evening, and those 15 contested shots led the Sixers defensively. He had a pair of deflections and was credited with seven box outs, second to Joel Embiid.

He did it while guarding smaller players for chunks of the game, finishing with an individual defensive rating of 84.5, which trailed only Josh Richardson among all 24 players to hit the floor last night.

“I just knew that I was going to probably be defending the perimeter a little more and it didn’t really change my approach,” he said. “I just prepared the same way and I was just really trying to do everything right, especially on the defensive end. I was making sure I was communicating, letting the guys know how we were playing.”

Not a big box score game for Horford, but Brett Brown was satisfied.

“He was just solid all over the place,” the head coach said. “He’s just so intellectually ready to play. He’s in the moment and he’s ready to play. He came in when we had some foul situations going on with Josh Richardson and Ben Simmons and then with Joel Embiid. It enabled me to switch some people around. Then I had a decision to make at the end of the game. I thought that Al was just solid throughout and certainly solid during timeouts with his comments amongst his teammates.”