ATHENS, Ga. -- The official prognosis entering training camp was that Al Horford's surgically repaired chest and shoulders weren't quite ready to carry the weight of his troubled franchise into the season.

But the Atlanta Hawks' marquee player is already deep into the heavy lifting.

"It's been important for me to realize that, in every experience, I feel like I can learn something, grow and get stronger," Horford said after watching yet another practice scrimmage from the sideline this week. "A lot of the times, you might not see it at that moment. You may feel frustrated and mad.

"But after that, when you look at it in the long run, it's probably for the best. It all happens for a reason."

All things considered, it's a philosophy Horford applies on multiple fronts these days.

Physically, Horford is continuing to find silver linings with each step. Despite being held out of team contact drills, he is gradually increasing his workload in camp this week at the University of Georgia amid his second recovery from a torn pectoral muscle last year that ended his season after 29 games.

Mentally, the two-time NBA All-Star is trying to remain engaged as a leader in preparation for an expanded role within second-year coach Mike Budenholzer's system adopted from San Antonio, one that should enhance Horford's status as one of the league's most versatile big men.

Spiritually, the eighth-year veteran and longest-tenured Hawk is working to make peace and move beyond a tumultuous offseason marred by separate racially charged comments from team owner Bruce Levenson and general manager Danny Ferry, who remains on administrative leave.

Horford is carrying a lot on his shoulders, but his even-keeled personality and positive outlook prevent his 6-foot-10, 250-pound frame from buckling under pressure. The same characteristics that drove Horford to become one of the most successful players in college history with two national championships in his two seasons at the University of Florida continue to define the player who has led Atlanta to the playoffs every season since he arrived as the third overall pick in the 2007 draft.

By most accounts around the league and beyond, those attributes make Horford both the ideal player and the person to guide Atlanta through the most challenging stage in franchise history.

"He's such a quiet, strong person who doesn't get rattled by anything," Budenholzer said. "Sometimes, I can be the opposite. So I use him as a barometer and say, 'Sometimes, I wish I could be more like Al.' He's just so poised and thoughtful, and he really carries himself in just a great way.

"I love being around him and talking to him. He's just one of those angels on earth-type guys with a lot of great qualities."

Patience doesn't necessarily rank at the top of Horford's list of attributes. Fortunately, perspective does. Horford can barely contain himself when he watches scrimmages from the sideline. Although coaches and trainers are holding him out of contact drills, he has pushed to do his one-on-one sessions off the side.

And that's what has allowed Horford to stand away from the action and focus on the bigger picture this week during training camp scrimmage sessions. He knows he can't afford any more setbacks like when he toned down his workouts during the summer amid lingering soreness. The expectation is for him to be 100 percent at the start of the season.

The Dec. 26 injury was the latest example of running into a stumbling block just as he was hoping to clear a hurdle. During one of his best games of the season -- 25 points on 11-of-17 shooting with eight rebounds, four assists and two blocks -- Horford tore his right pectoral muscle in a win at Cleveland. Two years earlier, he suffered the same freakish injury to his left pectoral muscle and played only 11 games during the 2011-12 regular season before returning in the playoffs.

The first injury halted Horford after he was coming off consecutive All-Star appearances in 2009 and 2010. The most recent surgery disrupted what was the best stretch of his career as he was adapting comfortably to Budenholzer's system and producing career-high numbers in points (18.6), field goal shooting percentage (.567) and blocks (1.5).

Without Horford, the Hawks still finished with the eighth seed in the playoffs and held a 3-2 series lead over top-seeded Indiana in the first round before losing in seven games. Atlanta played hard and fast and small and relentless basketball, a style that created headaches all over the court for Indiana.

But the Hawks were missing their closer.

"Our biggest issue was the fourth quarter," Hawks guard Kyle Korver said. "You know what he adds to our team. He's an All-Star center when he's healthy, and it's not a lot of those guys out there. You miss a lot. You miss a lot of leadership. We knew how we wanted to play, but we didn't finish.

"Having Al in there, a poised veteran, someone who has knocked down a bunch of big shots, it's going to help our execution, our confidence, all of those things. It's hard to put in a couple of words all that Al means."

Doctors have told Horford that the torn muscles were likely the result of scar tissue that had been building up along his chest and shoulders for years because of strenuous workouts. As a result, Horford has changed his weightlifting regimen by reducing bench-press and overhead lifting routines. There's an increased focus on strengthening his core and lower body.

For now, there's a bit of anxiety and apprehension mixed with the anticipation.

"It's going to be interesting," said Horford, who hopes to resume full practices next week and play in at least two preseason games before the Oct. 29 opener against Toronto. "When I see guys going here live and pretty fast, I definitely wonder. But I feel that once I get out there and the first situation happens when I get hit, or have to go in and wrestle or something, once I get that through, I should be fine."

As a player, Horford's fundamental skill and stretches of sheer dominance can be gauged metrically. As a leader, his impact on the team and organization has been immeasurable.

At no time was that more apparent this offseason than when insults within the front office were added to his latest injury. Horford was one of the first to address his teammates privately when a racially charged email from Levenson turned up during an internal investigation of the Hawks' splintered ownership group.

In the email, Levenson was critical of the Hawks' largely black fan base at home games and suggested ways the team could create a more comfortable environment for potential white season-ticket holders. The NBA investigated the incident, and Levenson has decided to sell his controlling stake in the team. Days after the email controversy, a recording surfaced of Ferry making disparaging and racist remarks during a staff free-agency conference call about forward Luol Deng, who later signed with Miami.

As the face of the franchise, Horford felt betrayed and struggled to make sense of it all.

"I don't necessarily think Bruce is a racist, but it was one of those things that definitely took me by surprise," Horford said of Levenson's controversial email. "When I saw it, it took me by surprise. I guess he was looking at it from a business standpoint, but it was a poor choice of words. The experiences I had with him have always been positive. But this took me by surprise."

Horford spoke with team executives but was unable to immediately meet with Levenson.

"My biggest thing was just to get all of the facts, make sure that I heard everything they needed to say," Horford said. "Sometimes, the way you find out is through the media, so you have to make sure everything is right. And once I saw what it was about -- it was management, it was ownership -- I was like, 'I can't control it.'

"I knew that some of those things were out of my hands. I just decided that I was going to get my head focused. I'm looking at the group of guys we have here, and we have a really good team. And it's unfair for us to have to think about anything but the team and getting better."