Hey guys I am a Boston Celtics fan and I felt the need to give you a view from my perspective after seeing the level of hate that Hayward is receiving. I want to lead this by saying that I think this entire situation is unfortunate for Jazz fans and that my initial reaction would be to bash Hayward too. Free agency is one of the most exciting things in sports but it's also a double edged sword when a great player leaves a model organization. To be completely honest I enjoyed watching the Jazz more than any other Western Conference team last year. Your team plays the game the right way and it was very easy to enjoy the the gritty mentality that Snyder instilled from top to bottom. Game 1 against the LA Clippers is a perfect example of this. I wish your franchise nothing but the best and I hope Gobert develops into a legitimate top tier Superstar. I also want to add that I don't think the Joe Ingles contact is bad for the franchise. Any contending team would be happy to have a player like him.
Anyways I am not coming on here to try and tell everyone not to be angry or agitated with how everything was handled. I simply feel the need to counter with an argument as to why Gordon didn't take an easy road like Durant or LeBron. I have seen this sentiment echoed quite a bit and I think it is a lazy narrative. We obviously know the Stevens factor was important but I also believe that our long term flexibility with draft picks and young talent was the difference maker. Gordon Hayward is clearly not coming to a team that is ready to win a title yet and we don't even a top 10 player on our roster. IT was amazing last season but he's not going to be a perennial top 10 player. Al Horford is a fringe All-Star and probably has two prime years remaining at most. The Celtics needed to sell Gordon on the process of being part of a team that could build itself into a title contender 2 or 3 years down the road. It's easy to hate us right now but our current roster is full of guys that play with a chip on their shoulder. If our team flipped rosters and coaches I am pretty confident in saying that Jazz fans would love their team.
I honestly believe that if your team had our Brooklyn 2018 pick and LA 2018(2-5) then you would have been able to bring him back. I have also seen a lot of people claim that Ainge will use Hayward for 3 years and then bail on him once Tatum + Jaylen hit their prime years. This couldn't be further from the truth. The future development of Tatum and Brown were definitely used as a selling point for Gordon to join us. Continuity is one of the most important priorities for both Stevens and Ainge. Any team that wants to dethrone Golden State in the future is going to need multiple wing players that can play multiple positions at an All-Star level.
I have a lot more I could say but I will stop here. Like I said before, I really hope the Jazz rebound quickly and that this is nothing more than a minor setback. You guys have one of the few organizations that gets it.
Sure our first impulse is to hate on Hayward. Glad you understand that. Put yourself in our position. You draft a guy (among a chorus of boos, mind you) and believe in him enough to give him 7 (SEVEN) years of investment and development. Sure, Hayward worked hard too. I get that. We saw it and appreciated it. But the Jazz formed a team around him. They paid him big money well before he was actually worth it, because they had faith that he'd turn into the player he is. To his credit, he did that. But our front office did everything they could do to make their case. Rubio flew in from SPAIN to attend a 3 hour meeting. Rudy Robert was there. Rodney Hood was there. And Hayward said no. No to a 5th year. No to more money. No to building a legacy where he'd likely have his own statue in front of the arena, next to the likes of two guys named Stockton and Malone. You don't say no to that unless you just pain old don't want to stay. And after everything, that really hurts.
We loved the guy. We believed in him. We were INCREDIBLY PATIENT through wet willies, a host of bad games and critically-timed disappearing acts (which he still does, by the way). We saw him go from a skinny kid to a grown man with a family. We made him part of our collective family here in Utah, and the way he left was a major disappointment. We aren't that dumb. We felt he was going to leave, and that he knew it long before he let us know. Still, we fans financed billboards. We put up homemade signs on freeway overpasses. We hash-tagged everything with #stayward. And when the news first broke, he tried to deny the decision had been made. So we waited some more, refreshed every 30 seconds, hoped, prayed, only to get our hearts broken AGAIN by this guy...the second time coming through what feels like a very hollow "make myself feel better" blog post he'd probably been working on for days. He walked away and we're left with "now what???" because our front office was held hostage waiting for his decision.
We loved the guy, and we feel completely trashed by him. Did he do it all on purpose, just to spite the team who gave him his first shot and helped him become what he is? Probably not. But the result is the same.
