Gordon Hayward narrowed his choices down to the Jazz, Celtics, and Heat before deciding to come to Boston. He joined ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on The Woj Pod to discuss some of the factors that went into his decision. Here are the highlights from the interview:
On Miami’s recruiting pitch:
I think the text I sent to [agent] Mark [Bartelstein] was, ‘Wow, that’s going to be really tough to beat.’ … I asked [my wife] Robyn, and she said something like she could see herself living there and that would be a really great place for us to be. ‘I really liked such and such of the wives and I could have a good relationship with them.’ It was all positive stuff. It was something where it was like ‘OK, now let’s try to just put that aside and go into Boston with a clean slate.’
On the Ricky Rubio trade:
It kind of was a difficult situation because I don’t want to be somebody that says, ‘You go get this player and I’m 100 percent in. If you trade for so and so, you get rid of this guy, you go get him.’ … I didn’t want to make demands because I didn’t know if I was going to end up there. It wasn’t a sure thing. I had told them I wanted to check out these other teams, and that being said, they asked me, ‘How do you feel about these guys?’ and I would tell them and Ricky was a guy that was high on my list.
On his relationship with Brad Stevens:
It’s been seven years since he coached me [at Butler], and immediately, though, he called me July 1, and after that phone call I thought like this isn’t going to be any different. With him, it was one of those things where he made me feel like even if I don’t go to Boston, it’ll be fine and we’ll still have that great relationship and he’ll still be in my corner and he’ll still be rooting for me and supporting me. So I got that feeling, too. We didn’t have a driver. He’s the one that picked me up and the one that drove me to the hotel and we got lost a couple times on the way. All those thoughts were put to bed.
He’s going to be really good playing for Brad Stevens.
^^^^^ Agreed
true if kyrie leaves I believe they can be the top dog of the East but who knows
Who else would be? Granted Irving stays in the east that can change things but him outta cle and in the west Boston is team to beat.
Wizards and Raptors are still pretty good teams
Next big FA visit to Miami I can see Riley picking up the player at the airport and pretending to get lost on the way to the beach…hahaha!
Lol. Maybe Riley takes a “wrong turn” into overtown
Mods must be Celtics fans…
Kylie for I.T. ,crowder, and one mediocre draft pick (first) and we have a great chance to win it all!