Esports

Celtics center Al Horford uses Toronto Defiant OWL hashtag on Twitter

02/15/2019

Despite many people around and about Boston’s NBA squad believing that the sky is falling, reports of the Celtics’ deaths have been greatly exaggerated. For a team that has had so much negative press written about it as of late, people may be surprised to know that the Celtics closed the All-Star break on a 12-3 run over their last 15 games. Following the team’s tight Tuesday win over the Philadelphia 76ers, Celtics big man, Al Horford, sent out a tweet celebrating the victory.

Adversity hits, we respond. Proud of the group. Go Celtics! #Risetogether

— Al Horford (@Al_Horford) February 13, 2019

The tweet itself was quite innocent. It read, “Adversity hits, we respond. Proud of the group. Go Celtics! #RiseTogether.” If you click through to the original tweet, however, a small part of the message stands out; an emblem that shows alongside the hashtag Horford used. Esports fans and Torontonians may recognize that emblem as the official logo of the Toronto Defiant Overwatch League team. Twitter automatically displays team logos alongside every official team hashtag. The hashtag of “RiseTogether” is the official motto of the Defiant for this season.

#Wrong?

It’s possible Horford was looking for “#CUsRise” which is the actual hashtag of the Celtics for the 2018-19 season. It’s similar enough that a mistake could be forgiven. He may have even been better off using the “#BostonUp” hashtag, which is the official motto of the city’s own Overwatch League team, the Boston Uprising. It’s also possible Horford knew exactly what he was doing and was purposely trolling Toronto fans. This would make sense as well, since the Celtics and the Toronto Raptors do have somewhat of a rivalry over the past several years.

Al knows who to support for #OWL2019 👊.#RiseTogether https://t.co/KzrDP8Mkbd

— Toronto Defiant 🖤 #RiseTogether (@TorontoDefiant) February 13, 2019

Whatever the case may be, the Toronto Defiant organization and its fans will surely appreciate the shout out and the extra attention. The team recently joined the Overwatch League for its second season and actually plays its debut match today. The Defiant open their inaugural season against the Houston Outlaws (7th place finishers from Season 1) at 7:00 PM EST.

For more Toronto Defiant coverage, check out our interview with president and CEO, Chris Overholt. Formerly the CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, Chris had a lot of interesting things to say about wading into the world of esports for the first time.