Hayward claims he was still undecided when Celtics news leaked
The day All-Star Gordon Hayward revealed he would sign with the Boston Celtics for $128 million over four years will be remembered less for his actual decision, and more for the bewildering sequence of events that led up to it.
ESPN's Chris Haynes reported early on that the 27-year-old would take his talents to Beantown, but Hayward's agent immediately refuted the story, saying his client hadn't made his mind up yet. Hayward's Players' Tribune piece was published hours later, leading many to question whether he and his team were forced to scramble once the news had broken before he could announce it himself.
"I know there were a lot of reports with people saying we were just finishing up the article for the Tribune, which is just completely false," Hayward said Friday during a conference call, according to Mass Live's Jay King. "I had a ghostwriter that I was talking with throughout the course of my visits. So I was sharing my thoughts, like I said, the whole time. And it was one of those things where once I finally made the decision, now it's like five minutes and we finish it up and we're ready to go. But it was definitely a crazy day. I'm kind of bummed how it happened, but in this day and age that type of stuff goes on. And there's sometimes not much you can do about it."
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Hayward also considered joining the Miami Heat, as well as staying put and re-upping with the Utah Jazz. While he was certainly favoring Boston, nothing had been set in stone yet, so once the report started circulating, he was forced to gather himself, do a little damage control, and reach a final verdict on his future.
"My mind was just in all kinds of different places that day. I think it's definitely fair to see that I was leaning towards Boston, but at the same time we hadn't figured it out," he added. "And I was going back and forth with Mark (Bartelstein). And we were really discussing throughout the day different reasons why or why not I should go to a different place.
"I was literally on the phone with Mark when the story broke online. And I'm getting, like, I'm looking at my phone, I'm getting blown up, (people) saying I'd decided to become a Boston Celtic. And everybody knows it was all over the internet. And at that point in time, we decided, 'Look, we have to step away from this.' I was pretty upset that that had happened. And I didn't feel like I was ready to say, 'Yes, I want to be a Boston Celtic.' So I had to take a step back. And we regrouped. And I think we talked about it more and more. Then finally we put out the article."