Gordon Hayward has had a roller coaster tenure with the Boston Celtics. First, after signing with his former college coach's team and leaving the Utah Jazz, Hayward injured his leg and ankle in the season-opening matchup. Missing nearly the entire season took a toll on the 29-year-old, who spent the 2018-19 season getting re-adjusted to playing intense ball.
The one-time NBA All-Star explained the difference between his offseason this past summer and the year before, when he was still returning from his gruesome injury.
For me, this summer has been all about building confidence and continuing to do some of the same things that I was so used to doing. I can’t overstate how important it’s been for my mental approach, to have a full summer where I was working out and training the way I need to train. That confidence is something that comes with repetition.
Last year, I didn’t really know what to expect because I was coming off the injury. Physically, I felt like I was good to go, but I hadn’t really played. So I think I was just hoping that I was good to go more than knowing that I was good to go.
That’s the biggest difference from last year and this year.
Last year, I was in my own head a lot, thinking about a lot of different things—hoping that it was going to be okay, hoping that I was going to be right—because I just hadn’t done it. I hadn’t had a chance to put in the reps.
Hayward, despite entering just his third year on the Celtics, will undoubtedly have to play a huge, veteran mentorship role on the team following the losses of Kyrie Irving and Al Horford in free agency. While the core makeup of Boston—Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and even Marcus Smart—remains intact, the losses of top-50 players in Irving and Horford have to sting, which explains Hayward's new mentality after a healthy summer to practice.
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