NEW YORK — For the first time in his Celtics career, Al Horford came off the bench for Wednesday’s season opener against the Knicks.

Horford, entering his sixth total season as a member of the C’s, had started all 429 games he played in Boston – 340 regular season, 89 postseason – before Wednesday. But with how loaded the Celtics’ roster is, and the way Joe Mazzulla wants to play, Horford accepted a seat on the bench as the ball tipped at Madison Square Garden.

It’s the first noteworthy example of sacrifice the Celtics are emphasizing this season as they chase a championship. Horford, who preferred to start in previous seasons, swallowed his ego. It didn’t go unnoticed.

“That’s the ultimate sacrifice,” Jayson Tatum said. “Everybody knows how much I love and respect Al. A lot of guys say that they’ll do anything to help the team win, but Al is the epitome of that. We got six starters essentially, and everybody’s gonna to sacrifice at some point throughout the season, depending on who we’re playing and matchups. But for Al to voice that he should come on a bench or whatever, he’s the ultimate team player. That’s why we all love and appreciate him and obviously he’s gonna be a huge part of the success that we have this year.”

Horford did not volunteer to come off the bench, but after several conversations, agreed to do as Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis took the floor. Horford received further praise from Mazzulla, who stressed that this won’t be the only example of sacrifice this season.

“Al’s a cultural warrior for us,” Mazzulla said. “So for a guy of his stature, what he’s done in this league, what he’s done for our team, to be willing to do that for our team is very important and I’m grateful for that and for him. At the same time, it’s not just about him. I think that’s the idea of this whole offseason, this preseason starting thing is like, yeah, Al’s making the initial sacrifice, but everyone’s gonna have to. And so it’s important that our team as a whole has the empathy for each other to understand that each guy is going to have to give up something little for us to be a better team.

“It’s gonna look differently for each guy and it’s gonna come at different times throughout the season. So right now, Al stepped up to the plate and started that for us, but each guys’ gonna have to do what Al’s doing night in and night out at different times. And as long as we keep that togetherness, that sacrifice, that open-mindedness, we’ll be able to maximize our ability to be as successful as we can be.”

The Division 1A tournament may be gone, but it is clearly not forgotten.

At Wednesday’s MIAA Board of Directors meeting, the topic came up once again. While nothing can be done until July 1, 2025 at the earliest, MIAA associate executive director Sherry Bryant acknowledged that there is still an appetite for it, citing the efforts of two sports (boys hockey and baseball) to restore it.

“We’re collecting data right now to see if there is a pattern of dominance between the schools which would require a more balanced divisional structure,” Bryant said. “If there were a 1A tournament (in the future), it would have to meet all the requirements of the other tournaments: single elimination, site policies, similar facilities and assignment of officials.”

With the fall season winding down, MIAA assistant director Jim Clark, the man primarily responsible for collecting scores and creating the current power ranking system, said the process by which scores are being inputted into Arbiter has improved.

“We’re still dealing with missing scores,” Clark said. “But it is pretty minimal.”

In other topics of discussion, Bryant stated some schools have overscheduled games. While Bryant admits it is not a rampant problem, it puts them in a position whereby they have to uphold the integrity of the rules for all the other schools. As is the case, if schools overschedule games, they must forfeit them and it creates problems for many schools when it comes to tournament time.

The tournament bracket release dates for the fall sports were announced. Football pairings will be made public this Sunday, followed by volleyball on Monday, field hockey on Tuesday and boys/girls soccer on Wednesday. According to Clark, pairings should be out by 1 p.m. and they are final.

The board voted unanimously to grant a membership application to New Heights Charter School of Brockton.

A Medway family remains stuck in Gaza Wednesday as airstrikes continue to hit buildings near where they are staying and a bloody war between Hamas and Israel rages on nearly two weeks after a horrific terrorist attack.

An attorney for the family, Sammy Nabulsi of Rose Law Partners, said attempts to cross the Gaza-Egypt border over the weekend were unsuccessful even after the U.S. State Department told Abood Okal and Wafaa Abuzayda a crossing would open for United States citizens at 10 a.m. local time Saturday.

Okal said he is “stranded” in Gaza with his wife and one-year-old son, Yousef. The family traveled to the area for a two-week trip to visit Abuzayda’s parents, Nabulsi previously told the Herald.

“We’ve been trying to stay strong, but it hasn’t been easy. Airstrikes have intensified the last few days, and especially last night. It’s become constant all night and most of the day, My son was not able to sleep, Yousef, not until one o’clock in the morning and then he was up again by five o’clock in the morning,” Okal said in an audio message recorded Wednesday and shared with the Herald.

Okal, Abuzayda, and their son are staying 10 minutes away from the Rafah Crossing, a checkpoint between Egypt and Gaza where aid trucks have entered in the past week to deliver crucial supplies.

But United States citizens trapped in the country have not managed to escape as Israel prepares to launch an expected ground invasion. The war started more than two weeks ago in response to a surprise terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel.

United States officials have estimated 500 to 600 Americans are in Gaza without a way to exit.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said David Satterfield, recently appointed envoy for humanitarian issues in the Mideast, was in Israel Tuesday engaged in negotiations with Israel, Egypt and the United Nations to get Rafah to open for U.S. citizens, other dual nationals, and employees of international organizations.

Miller blamed Hamas Monday for delays U.S. citizens are encountering in their attempt to escape Gaza.

“We do believe that Egypt is ready to process American citizens if they can make it to Egyptian authorities,” he told reporters. “Hamas just has to stop blocking their exit.”

Okal said airstrikes are becoming more frequent, intense, and closer to where they are staying in Southern Gaza, which Israeli previously declared a “safe zone” after warning residents in the north to evacuate.

One airstrike hit Wednesday roughly 900 feet away from the home Okal, Abuzayda, and their son were staying, Nabulsi said.

“All it takes is one missile, one airstrike to miss its target or be too close to where you are, and that has happened before where we’re staying, and that would be it,” Okal said in the audio message. “And time of an essence, time is of an essence as well because of the ground invasion, which is supposed to happen any minute now. And we cannot even think of the destruction that would bring upon us.”

The family, Okal said, ran out of milk for their one-year-old.

“We opened the last box and basically tonight, we would be completely out. It would be his first night ever, in his entire life, to go to sleep without having milk. So we’re hopeful that that will not be too bad of a night,” he said.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry said Wednesday that at least 6,546 Palestinians have been killed and 17,439 others wounded. In the occupied West Bank, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed and 1,650 wounded in violence and Israeli raids since Oct. 7.

The Health Ministry said airstrikes killed more than 750 people over the past 24 hours, without saying how many were militants. Death tolls from Hamas could not be immediately verified, which the group says it collects from hospital directors.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, according to Israeli officials, mostly civilians who died in the initial Hamas rampage. Israel’s military on Wednesday raised the number of remaining hostages in Gaza to 222 people, including foreigners believed captured by Hamas during the incursion. Four hostages have been released.

Materials from the Associated Press were used in this report.

Smoke billows after an airstrike in a picture provided by a lawyer representing a Medway family stuck in Gaza. The airstrike, the lawyer said, hit Wednesday roughly 900 feet from where the family is sheltering. (Courtesy of Sammy Nabulsi)