OCTOBER 18, 4:53pm: Hayward has been diagnosed with a dislocated and fractured left tibia, and will undergo surgery to repair the injury, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link). Head coach Brad Stevens said the team is expecting a “full recovery” for Hayward, but declined to speculate on a recovery timeline, tweets Jay King of MassLive.com.
OCTOBER 17, 8:35pm: Gordon Hayward suffered a gruesome fractured left ankle less than six minutes into the Celtics‘ regular-season opener against the Cavaliers on Tuesday, the team announced.
Hayward collapsed after an attempted alley-oop off a pass from Kyrie Irving. He landed on the hardwood and his leg collapsed underneath his weight. Players from both teams were distraught as medical personnel put an air cast on Hayward’s leg and took him into the locker room on a stretcher.
A fractured ankle is a preliminary diagnosis as Hayward will likely undergo an MRI to determine the full extent of the injury, per Mannix (via Twitter).
Several players, including LeBron James and Isaiah Thomas, went to the locker room area to see Hayward before he was taken to the hospital, per ESPN’s Brian Windhorst (Twitter links). Droves of NBA players sent Hayward well wishes over social media, including Thunder forward Paul George, who suffered a gruesome leg fracture during a Team USA scrimmage in August 2014.
Hayward’s injury is devastating for everybody involved as the 27-year-old signed a lucrative four-year, $128MM deal with Boston this offseason. Hayward spent the first seven seasons with the Jazz before signing with the Celtics this offseason. Alongside acquisition Irving and incumbents such as Al Horford, Hayward was expected to help Boston contend for an NBA championship.
Hayward set career highs in PPG (21.9), APG (5.4), RPG (4.7) and field goal percentage (.471%) in 73 games last season with the Jazz. The Butler University product made his first NBA All-Star team last season, too.
While it’s unclear whether or not Hayward’s injury is career-threatening, it seems unlikely that we’ll see him on the court again this season. As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes, in the event of a season-ending injury, the Celtics will be eligible to apply for a disabled player exception worth $8.4MM. That DPE could be used to sign a free agent claim a player off waivers, or trade for a player with one year left on his contract.
Wow
Those damn Voodoo Doctors in Utah
But for real get better soon GH
I feel terrible for Gordon Heyword a class guy and wish him a speedy recovery. That being said Boston is now fighting for a 7 or 8 seed.
I’d say they’re still a 4 seed in the east
Oh, oh!
That’s crazy, feel bad for Gordon. No question now though, Cavs have no one to stop them in the East.
The alley was from Kyrie not Rozier. There gonna have to reset now. Hay was a big piece to new math for the Celtics..wish him well soon.
On a positive note… Jaylen looks so much more confident with the ball and Tatum doesn’t look like a rookie out there.
Honestly though^. Surprised me how willing brown was to shoot tonight. But dang that entire plan for the future of the franchise may have just blew up 6 minutes in..
He was definitely willing but just wish he was more able from 3 pt land
Celtics are done.
Any NBA players have a similar injury before?
You could say maybe the PG13 injury was about the same thing
When it first happened, I thought it was his whole leg, like when Shaun Livingston got hurt like 9 or 10 years ago. But still, that looked like at least a compound fracture, probably dislocated something, and maybe even torn ligaments. Hopefully, he’ll be ok sooner than it looked. Thankfully, science is better now than it used to be. Paul George came back several months before I thought he would, although that was a different injury
Looks like Jalen is going to have to step up , now …
Really tough to see that happen to Gordon Hayward. Only thing you can really say is thankfully, he just got paid. Hopefully, he’ll eventually be ok. It’s going to be a long recovery process…
That really could have been anyone, and it was tough to see everyone’s reactions. For the young players, there were so many things you can take away from that. Get yours. Also, the comradery in sports showed itself again, and is more reason that I will continue to support them, as sports brings people together, especially as certain people try to tear people apart.
Celtics are going to have to rely on their young guys. Tatum can score, even at his age, and they need Jaylen Brown to step up offensively right now, as he did tonight. Al Horford is going to have to look to score more. They’re going to need Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier to step up. And they still have Marcus Morris. They probably move back into that 3-6 range, assuming they can get certain contributions. They still have depth, even though they have a lot of young players. I don’t think this totally kills their season, but it does probably take them out of top contention. Who knows though, considering every team has weaknesses. At least their young guys with upside will get to play more, which should make them an exciting team to still watch, and should help those guys develop sooner, and potentially be ready for a real run next year
It was a more awkward game than what followed (GSW/Rockets) and much of that was due to Boston not facilitating much, which was likely due to losing Hayward. The best passing in the sets were TO Irving.
The youngsters looked great though.
Bron has injury issues of his own and may not overall have helped the Cavs that much. The big dunk needed a travel.
Definitely a Mormon curse
That whole injury comes from a hurt feelings from Jae Crowder. He undercut Haywards legs when he was in the air then pulled his left arm down. Crowder was hurt that he lost his job to Hayward. I think Crowder tried to send a message back to Boston. I don’t think he wanted the outcome to be so severe. Still no place in sports for that revenge attitude
I was waiting for someone to say that when I saw it happen. It’s a basketball play. It was an ordinary foul underneath. A friend I was watching with tried to blame LeBron and his left arm. It was clearly the foul underneath on Crowder, but it wasn’t malicious. I literally said people would say something about Crowder being mad about Celtics fans cheering Hayward last year, and then talking about being disrespected after the trade. It was coincidental. When a guy goes down like that, there’s no time to waste your energy on ridiculous assumed vendettas
It is a foul and termed “dirty play” based off the rule changes that came out after the golden state warriors Pachulia undercut Khawi Leonard on his jump shot knocking him out for the playoffs. Basketball executives got together and said you need to give a player a space to land safely. In that situation when Gordon went up Crowder clearly moved under Heyward not giving himself space to land. Unfortunately Heyward collided with Lebron causing him to land awkwardly. Do I think that’s what Crowder intended no. Do I think Crowder intention was to knock him down and let him know he was unhappy yes
You need to learn what undercut means in basketball. That wasn’t a situation like that. That could have happened to anyone, which is just one part of why everyone was so distraught
Undercut means not allowing a player room to land. Watch the play again. You will see Crowder turn his back and push himself directly under Hayward. There is no play on the ball, there is no basketball reason for him to be under. It’s not a basketball boxing out situation and you are not playing defense from underneath the guy in the air. So by definition it is a foul.
I said it was a foul