Gordon Hayward has moved from one of the most, unfortunately, low interest teams in the league to the hugely popular Boston Celtics. His moved was inevitable to some who lamented his relationship with Brad Stevens would be in the nail in the coffin. According to Hayward on the Adrian Wojnarowski podcast, their relationship was made to be more than it was (Transcribed by NBC Sports).
The relationship between Brad and I has been completely overstated and overhyped from everybody.
And you mentioned it. There was always rumors about going to Boston, and those, to me, were always just rumors. I didn’t really ever think about it, because I wasn’t a free agent, wasn’t really concerned with the Boston thing. But everybody else was saying, “Oh, he’s going to go to Boston because of Brad.” And we had a great relationship, but it wasn’t like we were constantly texting each other or calling each other. He’s the head coach of the Boston Celtics. He’s got things to worry about.
I played for Brad for two years. And so it wasn’t like everybody kind of made it seem, like we were besties or something.
That was something I kind of was – “what’s this going to be like? It’s been seven years since he coached me.” And immediately though, he called me July 1. And after that phone call, I thought like, “Oh, no. This isn’t going be any different.” 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.
