2024 saw the Boston Celtics end their long wait to win a NBA Championship, where it all came together for the team and front office.
The success for the Boston Celtics was the culmination of years of planning, patience, and setbacks for the team.
No year defines this more closely than 2017, when the Celtics drafted Jayson Tatum, and also acquired Gordon Hayward in free agency.
Amid all the hope, Hayward’s Celtics spell turned into an immediate disaster when he suffered a serious injury in the season’s opening game.
Gordon Hayward had to leave Boston
Just six minutes into his Celtics debut, Hayward fractured his left ankle, on a night no fan in attendance in Boston will ever forget.
He missed the entire 2017-18 season, and when he returned the following year, the situation was challenging for him.
Rookie Jayson Tatum had taken over and made the Celtics ‘his team’, while Hayward had to deal with the physical and mental aftermath of returning.
He averaged just 11.5 points per game in 2018-19, a large dip on the 21.5 he averaged for the Utah Jazz in 2016-17 that saw him named an All-Star.
Hayward left the Celtics in 2020 to sign for the Charlotte Hornets, and he is glad he made the move, realizing that by that point, it was time to leave Boston.
He told Run It Back: “The Boston thing didn’t work out as well as everyone wanted. Coming off the injury I wanted to basically prove to myself that I could be the player I was in Utah, and that was never going to happen in Boston because we had so many dudes.
“There’s only one basketball, for much of the game, the majority of players, it’s about opportunity and having the ball, and I felt like choosing to go to Charlotte was an opportunity that I would have the ball.
He added: “I would have the responsibility, a chance to help take a young team to the playoffs, a team that was right there on the edge.”
The Hornets were not as successful as Hayward hoped, and his own injury problems played a part; he played under 50 games in both seasons in Charlotte.
But Hayward feels he did show enough that he proved to himself he still had it, and found some contentment.
He explained: “Unfortunately once you have one major injury, other ones keep coming. I felt like I had some of my best years in Charlotte.
“I had career highs I hadn’t had anywhere else. That gave me some peace.”
Hayward on Tatum trade demands
Jayson Tatum was drafted as a future Celtics star, and he was shocked to see Hayward signed in Boston. So much so that Tatum wanted to be traded, before his agent told him to be patient.
Hayward reflected on how he felt about hearing that, and how his injury actually worked to Tatum’s favor.
He said: “I take that as a massive compliment. I was an All-Star coming off the prime of my career. We played the same position.
‘”Cos I got hurt he’s getting the ball, he’s getting more opportunities, sometimes that’s all it takes.”
OKC traded for Hayward from the Hornets a year ago, a move that did not work out, and Hayward announced his retirement in September.