The cameras, the flash bulbs, the hordes of media members who followed him surprised Gordon Hayward as he entered Vivint Arena through the player entrance at about 6 p.m. MT. Hayward smiled a little smile, and couldn’t help but say “man.”
The media attention he wanted in Boston could be found here in Utah, it turned out. He just had to leave to get it.
Hayward’s on-court time was limited thanks to his recovery, but he did play 26 minutes. In that time, he scored 13 points, though shot just 3 of 9 from the field. He acted as a facilitator for the Celtics offense and added seven assists. Defensively, though, he struggled to keep pace with the Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell: The Jazz chose to switch Mitchell onto Hayward repeatedly, then attacked him with isolation situations.
As In-arena announcer Dan Roberts announced Hayward’s name, Jazz fans responded with a cacaphony of boos, one not heard since Enes Kanter’s return to Utah after demanding a trade to Oklahoma City. Every time Hayward touched the ball, more boos rang out.
Hayward wasn’t surprised by the reaction. “I kind of expected some of that,” he said. “It’s part of the game, and they were booing me from the get go. In warmups, I didn’t think they would boo, so that was kind of funny to me.”
The Jazz organization chose not to honor him with an in-game tribute video, knowing that would only continue the boos. Instead, they released a short, 20-second video online before the game, one that got its own quantity of negative feedback.
There were signs too: “Gordon Who?” “Call Gail,” and even a collage of a dunking Mitchell pasted above an injured Hayward.
“Obviously, he spent seven great years here. It meant a lot to him and his family, and without question, there’s going to be extra emotions that go into that for him,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “I think it’d be not human to not recognize that there will be extra emotions attached to this.”
Those emotions came at their highest, Hayward said, when he met with those he knew best before the game: Joe Ingles came over and laughed with Hayward, as did Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey.
Hayward did decline to appear for a league-mandated media session before the game for reasons unknown, postponing the chance to face the media until after the contest.
The former Jazz forward hasn’t had a superlative season, with averages of 9.9 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists per contest in an injury-mandated 25 minutes per night. He’s clearly shaking off rust, trying to get old rhythm and mobility back. Friday night’s special contest was the first time he’d played a back-to-back this season, but he couldn’t pass up the chance to play again in the arena that he called home for seven years.
“I grew up here. As a rookie, with D-Will and Coach Sloan. As I improved, I grew up as well, ended up getting married, had a couple of kids. A lot of fond memories here,” Hayward said. “A lot of it was the process that we started: We weren’t very good and we went all the up until my last year, when we won that round of the playoffs. It was a lot of fun.”
