During his first Boston experience, Gordon Hayward says he could feel the city’s ‘intensity’
"The Celtic lore, to me, is special because how invested the fans are."
Gordon Hayward says he didn’t grow up watching the Celtics and was too young to experience the Larry Bird era. However, in a podcast interview Monday with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, he explained what he felt was the singular character of his new team.
“The Celtic lore, to me, is special because how invested the fans are and how invested the organization is to winning and to greatness,” said Hayward, who signed a four-year deal to play in Boston earlier this month.
“I want to continue that greatness with the team we have now,” he added.
Hayward said he usually stayed in his hotel room when his former team, the Utah Jazz, visited Boston, so he got his first real experience in his new hometown earlier this month.
It didn’t get off to the smoothest start.
“I accidentally forgot my suit for the press conference, so we had to stop and get a suit,” he told Wojnarowski. “We were going to go to Saks [Fifth Avenue] but didn’t have time, so we jumped out of the car and just went to Jos. A. Bank’s, which I got killed on.”
The 6-foot-8 suit shopper’s presence did not go unnoticed at the time.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWOMkO0hrMQ/
Hayward was also spotted at a North End barbershop and a restaurant with his wife, Robyn, and Celtics coach Brad Stevens.
“I could feel it then, though — the intensity,” Hayward said of the city’s energy. “We went to the North End and I got my hair cut, and we almost just like had a night in the heart of Boston. … We kind of just jumped in and you could feel just everybody was excited.”
