Gordon Hayward had options during his free agency in 2017. He thought he had his mind made up about where he wanted to sign, but it wasn’t with the Boston Celtics.
Rather, it was their rival.
“I basically visited three teams. I started with Miami then did Boston then finished with Utah, meeting with all those teams,” Hayward said during a recent appearance on “The Dan LeBatard Show.” “I remember vividly telling my agent after each meeting like, ‘I want to go to Miami. We don’t even need to do the other meetings. Miami is the place I want to be.’ He kind of was like, ‘Well, we got to hear everyone out.’ The Heat have always been a first-class organization so I was really, really close to signing there.”
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The Celtics ultimately signed Hayward to a four-year deal in the summer of 2017. It was a big acquisition for Boston after it missed out on Kevin Durant the previous year. Hayward admitted the Heat made a strong first impression on him, reuniting with then-coach Brad Stevens and a chance to play for an NBA championship was something Hayward couldn’t turn down.
“Brad was the one that sold it. It’s hard to compete with somebody that I played under at Butler and had a huge impact on my life, not only as a player but also a person,” he said. “So that was kind of the key thing was being able to play for him again.”
Hayward never accomplished what he set out to do with the Celtics, and had his first season cut short in his debut due to a gruesome leg injury. He admitted earlier this year that the superteam that included him and Kyrie Irving — coupled with the emergence of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown — didn’t want to make the necessary sacrifices in order to go all the way and that winning a title wasn’t “the main agenda” in 2018-19.
The 34-year-old recently announced his retirement after 14 NBA seasons. And while Hayward never won a championship, he still had plenty of success during his time in the league.
