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During this past offseason, All-Star forward Gordon Hayward made the tough decision to leave the Utah Jazz after seven seasons for the Boston Celtics in free agency.
It was a thorough process that saw Jazz big man Rudy Gobert reach out to Hayward about the entire situation, but his text messages were not being answered by his former longtime teammate, according to Zach Lowe of ESPN.
“I could feel it,” Gobert says. “I was texting him a few days before [Hayward’s July 4th decision], and he wasn’t texting me back. That’s what I didn’t like. Just tell me. After five years, trust us, say what you are going to do. But I respect his choice.”
The fact that Hayward wasn't responding to Gobert may have simply been the fact that he wanted to make the choice without any outside influence, which included his Jazz teammate. This could feed the narrative that he wasn't seriously considering going back to Utah as he was set on leaving the team.
Following his decision, Hayward did express that it was hard to make up his mind given his strong connection to the Jazz organization over the last several seasons. It was likely the reason why it took a few days longer than expected for him to make his final choice on where he will spend the next chapter of his career.
Despite the initial disdain toward being ignored by Hayward during the free agency process, there are no hard feelings on Gobert's end of things.
