Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jean Segura s and Boston Celtics center Al Horford have both struggled to see the postseason in their lengthy careers.
There are a few things that Jean Segura and Al Horford have in common.
For one, the two elite athletes both call the Dominican Republic home: Horford is from Puerto Plata; Segura is from San Juan.
Both went pro in the year 2007: Horford was selected by the Atlanta Hawks with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, and Segura debuted with the Dominican Summer Angels in the Dominican summer league a few months later.
Unfortunately, the veteran MLB star and the highest-paid Latin American player in the NBA also have something in common: some of the longest playoff droughts ever seen by top players.
When Segura congratulated Horford on an emotional Eastern Conference Finals victory in Game 7, FanSided’s Gabrielle Starr pointed out that Segura could likely relate to Horford in that moment. The 35-year-old center hasn’t seen the NBA Finals in his entire career, and the 32-year-old shortstop now leads active MLB players in games played without seeing the postseason.
Phillies Jean Segura congratulates Al Horford on Celtics Finals berth
Starr went into further detail on the similarities between the two, as well as how their respective histories factor into being able to miss the playoffs for all those years.
In Segura’s case, he wasn’t called up to the majors until 2012, and the only team he could have possibly won a pennant with during his professional baseball career would have been the Phillies if they called him up in 2008. Of course, the Phillies didn’t acquire Segura until 2019, one year after he was named an MLB All-Star for the second time in his career.
Segura has had the misfortune of struggling with teams that are far from playoff runs, including the 2022 Phillies. As Starr put it in a recent article:
“The Philadelphia Phillies are astounding, confounding, baffling in their constant failure. They are consistent only in their inconsistency.”
The same could have been said about Horford’s longtime Atlanta Hawks, who finally saw the NBA Finals last season thanks to Trae Young. With the surrounding cast Horford now has in Boston, perhaps this could finally be his year — and ideally, it could become Segura’s year, too.