Gordon Hayward was 27 years old when he joined the Boston Celtics in 2017, fresh off the first All-Star Game appearance of his career. He fit between Kyrie Irving and Al Horford on a team that had drafted Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Terry Rozier and Marcus Smart over the previous four years. They were loaded.
Just five minutes into his tenure in Boston, Hayward fractured his left tibia and dislocated his ankle. Seven years later, as his former team prepares to raise its championship banner, he retired after 14 seasons, and it’s impossible to process his NBA career without reflecting on how that gruesome injury shaped him.
“I expected things to be a lot different in my mind when I decided to move and go play in Boston,” Hayward told Yahoo Sports via Zoom on Friday. “I was relatively healthy for my first seven years in the NBA, until that major injury, and then it seemed like every year after that it was one thing after another.”
Hayward returned to the Celtics for two more seasons, including a trip to the 2020 Eastern Conference Finals, marred again by a sprained other ankle. He needed a change and found one in Charlotte, where he averaged an efficient 16-5-4 but had to deal with injuries to both feet, hamstrings and left calf.
“It’s unreal how the body can compensate for it,” Hayward said, “(but) the strength has to go somewhere.”
In February, Hayward was traded from Charlotte to Oklahoma City, where he thought he would have a chance to contribute again to a contender, only to discover that the Thunder had few playoff minutes for him.
“I was proud to be back on the court,” said Hayward, now 34. “I felt like I was back to the player I was. I had some of the best games of my career in Charlotte. I’m at peace with my career and where it all took me. Unfortunately, the team aspect didn’t work out.” like I wanted to, but yeah: it’s hard to think about my career without thinking about Boston and the injury and all that.”
Meanwhile, he watched his former Celtics teammates win a championship without him.
“Obviously, I’m human. It would have been great if I could have done it when I was there,” Hayward said. “Certainly the expectations were to do that. But I still have great relationships with the people that are still there. I’m very happy for Brad (Stevens), for Joe Mazzulla and obviously for the guys that I played with while I was there. —Al, “Jayson and JB are now prepared to hopefully do it again this year.”
A “ton” of teams requested Hayward’s services this summer, hoping he could be a missing piece for a title contender, according to his agent, Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports and Entertainment. But Hayward decided this was it for his basketball career, although he hopes to stay connected to the sport. He has four children between the ages of 4 and 9 and wanted to spend more time with his family.
“He was ready to move on with his life and other challenges,” Bartelstein said. “He is very happy and that is the most important thing. His decision to leave the NBA was not for lack of interest.”
Although it’s funny how things turn out. In Boston, Hayward met Simon Hacker, the filmmaker tasked with chronicling the former All-Star’s arduous rehabilitation in a documentary series for The Players’ Tribune. So when it came time to decide what to do with the rest of his life, he and Hacker founded Whiskey Creek Productions, whose first project, “Notice to Quit,” debuted in more than 400 theaters over the weekend.
“It’s been a bridge, and it’s great to get my mind off (basketball) and jump right into this,” Hayward said.
“A lot of athletes have production companies, but they kind of get pigeonholed into making sports movies, and this movie has nothing to do with sports,” he added. “It’s something that I think will relate to a lot of people. We want to be storytellers, and I think this is a really interesting story to tell.”
The independent film follows Michael Zegen (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) over the course of a day in New York City, as he tries to save his career and repair a fractured relationship with his daughter, an issue of balancing work and the personal life discussed by Hayward, who reviewed film diaries between games last season. Among his first tasks in retirement was a trip to Lucasfilm’s Skywalker Studios to edit sound.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Hayward said. “I hope to be even more involved here in the future.”
Seven years after the world watched an injury alter his career in an instant, Gordon Hayward is happy.