The Legend of Utah Gordon Hayward

If you ever find yourself wandering the comments sections of Celtics blogs, reddit and Boston news sites you’ll often hear a favorite story told by Boston locals.

The legend of Utah Gordon Hayward.

It’s a favorite of many young Celtics fans whose twitter accounts, started in 2017, with names like @GH20foLIFE, a combination of clover emojis or @TatumHOFyeahbaby.

These tales are told by national writers and radio personalities whose knowledge of Hayward comes from his final trip to the playoffs with the Utah Jazz. Well, just the youtube highlights because watching an actual Jazz game is something they never do.

Here are some of the legends they tell.

Gordon Hayward used to shoot pull up threes at something like 78%. The only time he ever missed a shot was when he blessed the opposing teams with a hope to come back. That was his favorite part. Hayward loved making people feel like they had a chance and then at the last minute take that hope away.

Gordon Hayward could blow by anyone who guarded him and would jump over any center in his way. There was no center in the league he couldn’t jump over. Sometimes, just for fun, he would jump over multiple players in one drive to the rim.

Hayward was the greatest of team leaders and would be very positive and vocal in the locker room. He was never, ever moody and sometimes would buy his teammates candy bars because he wanted them to know just how “sweet” he could be.

Gordon Hayward would never turn the ball over at the end of games and was way clutch, yo. There wasn’t a game he couldn’t take over. If Joe Johnson wouldn’t have been so annoying by not giving him the ball in the Jazz/Clippers playoff series he would have made a totally cooler game winner than Johnson did.

Hayward was never benched for Josh Howard. Hayward has a golden heart and would give his starting spot to anyone in need of more self esteem.

Gordon Hayward had magnetic ears. Delonte West didn’t actually give him a wet willy, his finger that has a metal splint inside was actually drown inside by Hayward’s magnetic powers.

These are only some of the tales, there are so many I can’t recount them all in one single article.

So remember, Jazz fans, if you listen to enough national podcasts or read enough articles from Boston, you may be lucky enough to hear even more of these tales.

Just don’t tell them that when Hayward was the best player on the Jazz, before they drafted Rudy Gobert, they were at the bottom of the lottery.