Did Gordon Hayward receive special treatment this past season with the Boston Celtics?
That’s the scuttlebutt — or at least how some folks reportedly feel — following Boston’s disappointing 2018-19 campaign, and Cris Carter isn’t the least bit surprised.
ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan theorized Tuesday that certain players weren’t happy about Celtics coach Brad Stevens giving Hayward a prominent role despite the forward playing poorly upon returning from a gruesome ankle injury. NBA insider Chris Mannix supported that theory, saying some felt like Stevens “babied” Hayward, and Carter explained Thursday on FS1’s “First Things First” that such reports shouldn’t shock anyone given the past history involved.
Stevens recruited Hayward at Butler and coached him for two seasons in college (2008-10) before the latter evolved into an NBA All-Star with the Utah Jazz.
“If I’m in that (Celtics) locker room, you start hearing things like, ‘Oh man, he’s getting the special treatment,'” Carter said. “And when you watch the film together, are the coaches criticizing him with the same intensity that they criticize the other players on the roster? And it eats away. You start to be like, ‘Man, they’re treating him a lot better than they’re treating me. Like, wow, if I had an injury like that, would they be as patient? Would I be a starter? Would I be getting those minutes?’ The truthful answer is, ‘No, you wouldn’t.’
“As coaches, it’s hard to remove the past experiences you have with people. You’re not going to give up on a guy that you have history with … and the guys see through it. So I’m not surprised at all that this was going on in Boston, with some of the other things they had going on in the locker room, because there were points this year in the season where Gordon Hayward looked almost unplayable. I mean, he’s just a shell of himself athletically. Now, at the end of the season, he did look a lot better. But with the players who were trying to get paid and trying to win a championship, Gordon Hayward’s inability to be himself was getting in the way of both of those things.”
To be fair, both Hayward and Stevens faced difficult situations: Hayward was trying to overcome physical and mental hurdles to help the Celtics, while Stevens was trying to put him in a position to succeed and build confidence in the hopes the 29-year-old would return to form as Boston entered the playoffs.
Their intentions, however positive, mixed poorly with reality and young players like Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum were forced into somewhat diminished roles thanks to Hayward’s return. It’s easy to see how that could rub some guys the wrong way, all things considered.
